



771 CO.. 



THE 




C 

By C. F. VOLNEY, 

ONE OF THE DEPUTIES OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF 
1789, AND AUTHOR OF TRAVELS IN SYRIA AND EGYPT. 



A NEW TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH. 



I will go atid dwell in solitude amidst the mins of cities : I will enquire of the moniT- 
ments of antiquity, what was the wisdom of former ages : $ will awaken and call 
forth from the dormitory of sepulchres, the spirit that once gave animation and 
splendour to the states of Asia, and glory to the people : I will ark the ashes of 
legislators what causes have operated in the rise and downfall of empires; what 
are the constituent principles of" national prosperity and misfortune ; what the 
genuine maxims, upon which the peace of society and the happiness of maa ought 
to be founded. — Chap. IV, page 31. 



ALBANY: 

PUBLISHED BY S. SHAW, NO. 75 WASHINGTON-STREET. 

1822, 



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PREFACE 

To the Philadelphia Edition, published in 1799; 



THE plan of this publication was formed nearly twelve 
years ago ; and allusions to it may be seen in the Preface to 
Travels in Syria and Egypt, as well as at the end of the work, 
published in 1787- The performance was in some forward- 
ness when the events of 1788 in France interrupted it. Per- 
suaded that a developement of the theory of political truth 
could not sufficiently acquit a citizen of his debt to society, the 
author wished to add practice ; and that particularly at a time 
when a single arm was of consequence in the defence of the 
general cause. The same desire of public benefit which in- 
duced him to suspend his work, has since engaged him to re- 
sume it ; and though it may not possess the same merit as if 
it had appeared under the circumstances that gave rise to it, 
yet he imagines that at a time when new passions are burst- 
ing forth, passions that must communicate their activity to 
the religious opinion of men, it is of importance to dissemi- 
nate such moral truths as are calculated to operate as a sort 
of curb and restraint. It is with this view he has endeavour- 
ed to give to these truths, hitherto treated as abstract, a form 
likely to gain them a reception. It was found impossible not 
to shock the violent prejudices of some readers, but the work, 
so far from being the fruit of a disorderly and perturbed spir- 
it, has been dictated by a sincere lover of order and humanity. 

After reading this performance it will be asked, how it was 
possible, in 1784, to have had an idea of what did not take 
place until the year 1790. The solution is simple : in the 
original plan the legislator was a fictitious and hypothetical 
being : in the present, the author has substituted an existing 
legislator; and the reality has only made the subject addition- 
ally interesting. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



IT has long been matter of complaint among 
French writers, that those publications of 
theirs, which have been rendered into En- 
glish, contain many inaccuracies and false 
translations. These arise from the greater 
part of those, who translate works from one 
language into another, pursuing that business 
as a profession, in order to obtain a living; 
their circumstances are necessitous, which too 
often compel them to hurry through their 
translations, without paying that attention 
which is always necessary to investigate the 
true meaning of the author; to develope an 
ambiguous expression — to discover and re- 
ject, the obsolete meaning of a word, would 
consume too much time; hence arise false 
translations, &c. But in this edition the trans- 
lator was not under necessitous circumstances; 
he undertook it to oblige a friend, and had 
frequent opportunities of consulting the au- 
thor, and several gentlemen distinguished 
equally for their knowledge of the French as 
of the English language. 



INVOCATION, 



HAIL, ye solitary Ruins, Ye sacred Tombs, and silent 
Walls ! 'Tis your auspicious aid that I invoke, 'tis to You 
my Soul wrapt in meditation, pours forth its prayer ! What 
though the profane and vulgar mind shrinks with dismay from 
your august and awe-inspiring aspect, to me ye unfold the 
sublimest eharms of contemplation and sentiment, and offer to 
my senses the luxury of a thousand delicious and enchanting 
thoughts ! How sumptuous the feast to a being, that has a taste 
to relish, and an understanding to consult you ! What rich and 
noble admonitions, what exquisite and pathetic lessons do 
you read to a heart, that is susceptible of exalted feelings { 
When oppressed humanity bent in timid silence throughout 
the globe beneath the galling yoke of slavery, it was you that 
proclaimed aloud the birthright of those truths, which tyrants 
tremble at while they detest ; and which, by sinking the lofti- 
est head of the proudest potentate, with all his boasted pa- 
geantry, to the level of mortality with his meanest slave, con- 
firmed and ratified by your unerring testimony the sacred and 
immortal doctrine of Equality. 

Musing within the precincts of your inviting scenes of phi- 
losophic solitude, whither the insatiate love of true-born Lib>- 
erty had led me, I beheld her Genius ascending, not in the 
spurious character and habit of a bloodthirsty fury armed with 
daggers and instruments of murder, and followed by a frantic 
and intoxicated multitude, but under the placid and chaste as- 
pect of Justice, holding with a pure and unsullied hand the 
saered scales, in which the actions of mortals are weighed on 
the brink of eternity. 

O ye Tombs and emblematic images of death! how super- 
lative is your power, how irresistible your influence ! Your 
presence appals and chills the souls of tyrants with electric 
horror and remorse : the very remembrance of you haunts 
their minds like a ghastly spectre in the midst of their volup- 
tuous enjoyments, and the terror 30U inspire, plants thorns in 
all their thoughts, and poisons their impious pleasures into 
pains. Leading a life of living death while exposed to the 
continual mementos of such grave but faithful monitors, the 
dastardly cowards endeavour to elope and steal awav both 

A2 



vi INVOCATION. 

from you and themselves, and to drown their reflections amid 
the pride and pomp of their palaces established at a remoter 
distance from you*. — Yes, ye Tombs ! 'tis you, who punish 
the powerful oppressor ; 'tis you, who wrest from the hands 
of the merciless extortioner his ill gotten pelf, and avenge the 
wrongs of the distressed, who have become the victims of his 
rapacity. 'Tis you, who humble the proud heart of the 
wealthy favourite of fortune by a restless brood of upstart 
cares and anxieties, and take ample reprisals for all the pain- 
ful privations of the sons of poverty. 'Tis you, who afford a 
consolatory asylum to the aching bosom of the unfortunate, 
where affliction, with all the lingering catalogue of sighs and 
tears that sorrow is heir to, shall close its account. In a word, 
'tis you, who give to the mind that just equipoise, that uniform 
degree of energy and sensibility, in which the whole wisdom 
and philosophy of life consist. Conscious that all human poses- 
sions are held only by an uncertain and precarious tenure and 
must be yielded up to you at the last, the man of reflection, 
rich within himself, leaves to the groveling and luxurious 
worldling the delusive pleasures of short-lived grandeur and 
useles superfluity : he makes equity the moral circumference 
of his actions, the horrizon that bounds his every wish and 
every thought : yet, not forgetful of the duty he owes to soci- 
ety, and unwilling that the portion of life that is allotted him 
should become a blank, he calculates the industrious moments 
of his existence by their utility, and enjoys with gratitude and 
moderation those blessings, which the bounty of nature has 
bestowed upon him. 'Tis thus ye give a salutary check to 
the impetuosity and greedy excursions of inordinate desire : 
"tis thus ye calm the feverish tumult of sensual enjoyments : 
>tis thus the soul finds in you a repose from the hurricane and 
storm of the jarring passions: and 'tis thus ye exalt it above 
all sordid and paltry interests at once the torment and delight 
of vulgar minds, while the understanding, perched on the 
lofty summit of your towering heights, looks around through 
the wide expanse of ages and of nations, and by wedding its 
attention to none but great and noble affections, frames to 
Itself the most sublime and solid ideas of glory and virtue. 

* It was on account of the steeple of the church of St. Dennis, 
where the Kings of France were interred, being- so visible an ob- 
ject from the palace of St. Germain, that Louis the Fourteenth could 
not endure to reside at this seat, though it was most admirably situ- 
ated.. This very circumstance induced him to build in the forests 
the palace of Versailles, which was eventually the ruin of his here- 
ditary empii e- 



INVOCATION. vii 

But alas ! when this fleeting dream of human existence shall 
be terminated, to what purpose will all this bustle of life, 
these impassioned agitations and emotions of the heart have 
conduced, if they leave behind them no traces of utility? 

Once more will I revisit you ye venerable ruins ! to receive 
your instructive lessons, and embellish my mind with your 
hoary truths ! Once more will I resume my place among you 
to enjoy the sequestered privacy of your engaging and peace- 
ful solitude : where, far secluded from the afflictive spectacle 
of the warring passions, I will love my own species in the 
affectionate feelings of recollection, and, while I am studying 
to advance the universal happiness of my fellow-creatures, I 
will build my own on the pleasing belief that I have accelera- 
ted theirs. 



CONTENTS. 



>♦< 



CHAP. I. Page 

The Tour 13 

CHAP. II. 
Meditations, 3 6 

CHAP. III. 
The Apparition, 22 

CHAP. IV. 
Preparatory Exposition, 30 

CHAP. V. 
Condition of Man in the Universe, . . 39 

CHAP. VI. 
Original state of man, 42 

CHAP. VII. 

Principles of Society, 44 

CHAP. VIII. 
Source of the evils of Society, ... 48 

CHAP. IX. 
Origin of governments and of laws, . . 51 

CHAP. X. 
General causes of the prosperity of an- 
cient states, 55 

CHAP. XI. 
General causes of the revolutions and 

ruin of ancient states 62 

CHAP. XII. 
Lessons, taught by the ancients, re- 
peated in modern times, .... 76 
CHAP. XIII. 
Will the human race ever be in a bet- 
ter condition than at present, . . 97 



x CONTENTS. 

CHAP. XIV. Page 

The grand obstacle to improvement, . 109 
CHAP. XV. 

New age, 115 

CHAP. XVI. 
A free and legislative people, . . .121 

CHVP. XVII. 
Universal basis of all right and all law, 124 

CHAP. XVIII. 
Consternation and conspiracy of tyrants, 128 

CHAP. XIX. 
General assembly of the people of all 

nations, 132 

CHAP. XX. 

Investigation of truth, 138 

CHAP. XXI 
Problem of religious contradictions, * 152 

CHAP. XXII. 
Origin and genealogy of religious ideas, 189 

SECT. I. 
Origin of the idea of God : Worship of 
the elements and physical powers 

of nature, 197 

SECT. II. 
Second System : Worship of the stars, 

or Sabeism, 201 

SECT. III. 
Third System : Worship of symbols, or 

idolatry, 205 

SECT. IV. 
Fourth system : Worship of two prin- 
ciples, or Dualism, .... f 218 
SECT. V. 
Mystical or moral worship, or the sys- 
tem of a future state, . . . . . 223 



xl CONTENTS. 

SECT. VI. Page 

Sixth System : The animated world, or 
worship of the universe under dif- 
ferent emblems, 228 

SECT. VII. 
Seventh System : Worship of the soul 
of the World, that is, of the ele- 
ment of fire, the vital principle of 

the universe, 232 

SECT. VIII. 
Eighth System : The world a machine : 
worship of the Demi-ourgos, Ma- 
ker, or supreme Artificer, . . . 234 
SECT. IX. 
Religion of Moses, or worship of the 

soul of the world (You-piter,) . . 239 
SECT. X. 

Religion of Zoroaster, 240 

SECT. XI. 
Budsoism, or the religion of the Sama- 

neans, 240 

SECT. XII. 
Brachmanism, or the Indian system, . 241 

SECT. XIII. 
Christianity, or the allegorical worship 
of the Sun under the cabalistical 
names of Cris-en or Christ, and 
Yes-us or Jesus, ...... 242 

CHAP. XXIII. 
The end of all religions the same, . . 251 

CHAP. XXIV. 
Solution of the problem of contradic- 
tions, .......... 264 



THE 

OR, 

^Meditations on tVve Involutions oi' 
Empires, 

CHAP. I. 

THE TOUR. 

IN the eleventh year of the reign of Abd-ul 
Harnid, son of Ahmed, emperor of the Turks ; 
when the Nogaian Tartars were driven from 
the Crimea, and a Mussulman prince, of the 
blood of Gengis Khan, became the vassal and 
the guard of a woman, a Christian, and a 
queen*; 1 journeyed in the empire of the Ot- 
tomans, and traversed the provinces which 
formerly were kingdoms of Egypt and of Sy- 
ria. 

Directing the whole of my attention to what 
concerns the happiness of mankind in a state 
of society, I entered into cities, and studied 
the manners of their inhabitants; I gained 
admission into palaces, and observed the con- 
duct of those who governed ; I wandered over 
the country, and examined the condition of 
the peasantry : and perceiving every where 

* That is to say, in the year 1784. The reader is re- 
quested not to lose sight of this epoch. See the notes at the 
end of the volume. 

B 



14 THE TOUR. 

nothing but robbery and devastation, tyranny 
and wretchedness, my heart was oppressed 
with sorrow and indignation. 

Every day I found, in my route, fields aban- 
doned by the plough, villages deserted, and 
towns in ruins. Frequently I met with an- 
tique monuments, wrecks of temples, palaces, 
and fortifications, pillars, aqueducts, and se- 
pulchres. By these scenes, my reflections 
were carried back to past ages, and my mind 
was absorbed in serious and profound medi- 
tation. 

Arrived at Hamsa on the borders of the 
Orontes, and being at no great distance from 
the city of Palmyra, situated in the desert, I 
resolved to make myself personally acquaint- 
ed with its boasted monuments. After three 
days travel in barren solitude, and having tra- 
versed a valley filled with grottoes and tombs, 
my eyes were, on a sudden, struck, in passing 
from this valley into a plain, with a most as- 
tonishing scene of ruins. It consisted of a 
countless multitude of superb columns stand- 
ing erect, and which, like the avenues of our 
parks, extended in regular files until the eye 
gradually lost sight of them. Among these 
columns, magnificent edifices were observa- 
ble, some entire, others half mouldered away. 
The ground was covered on all sides with 
fragments of similar buildings, cornices, capi- 
tals, shafts, entablatures, and pilasters, all of 
white marble, and of exquisite workmanship. 
After a walk of three quarters of an hour along 
these ruins, I entered the inclosure of a vast 
edifice which had formerly been a temple 



THE TOUK. 15 

dedicated to the sun ; and I accepted the hos- 
pitality of some poor Arabian peasants, who 
had established their huts in the very area of 
the temple. This I resolved to make my re- 
sidence for some days, in order that I might 
examine more circumstantially into the beau- 
ty of so many stupendous works. 

Every day I walked out to visit some of the 
monuments which bespread the plain; and 
one evening when lost in reflection, I had ad- 
vanced as far as the Valley of Sepulchres, I as- 
cended the heights that bound it*, from which 
the eye commands at once the whole of ih$ 
ruins and the immensity of the desert. The 
sun had just sunk below the horizon ; a radi- 
ant wreath tinged with a reddish hue still 
marked the place of his retreat behind the 
distant perspective of the mountains of Syria : 
the full moon in the east reposing on a ground 
of deep blue, rose from the smooth bank of 
the Euphrates: the sky was cloudless; the 
air calm and serene; the expiring lustre of 
day served to soften the horror of approach- 
ing darkness ; the native freshness of the even- 
ing breeze assuaged the heat of the parched 
earth; the herdsmen had led the camels to 
their stalls ; the eye was not accosted by a 
single motion amidst the monotonous gloom 
of the dusky plain; through the whole desert 
ail was solemn stillness, uninterrupted, except 
at intervals by the mournful sonnets of a few 
solitary birds of night, and the cries of a few 
chacals.* The dusk increased, and my sight 

* An animal much resembling the fox, but less remarka- 
ble for cunning, and extremely ugly. It feeds upon dead bo- 
dies, and lives among the rocks and ruins. 



1 6 MEDITATIONS. 

could no longer distinguish through the grej 
twilight any thing besides the shadowy and 

pale apparitions of walls and columns 

The lonely solitude of the place, the peaceful 
serenity of the evening, and the majestic im- 
agery of the scene, impressed my mind with 
religious contemplation. The view of an il- 
lustrious city deserted, the recollection of 
past times, the contrast with their present 
state, all conspired to elevate my heart with 
a series of sublime meditations. I sat down 
on the base of a broken column; and there 
resting my elbow on my knee, and supporting 
my head upon my hand, sometimes directing 
my eye towards the desert, sometimes fixing 
it on the ruins, I sunk insensibly into a pro- 
found reverie. 



CHAP. IL 

MEDITATIONS. 

Here, said I in pensive soliloquy to myself, 
here an opulent city once flourished ; this was 
ihe seat of a powerful empire. Yes, the inte- 
rior mansions of these stately ruins, now so 
desert, a living multitude formerly animated, 
and a busv croud circulated in the streets 
which at present are so solitary. Within those 
walls, where a deadly and lonesome silence 
reigns, the noise of the arts and the shouts of 
joy and festivity continually resounded. 
These confused heaps of marble formed regu- 
lar palaces, these fallen pillars were the ma- 



MEDITATIONS. 



17 



jestic ornaments of temples, these antiquated 
and ruinous galleries are the mutilated vesti- 
ges of public places. There a numerous peo- 
ple assembled for the respectable perform- 
ance of its religious worship, and for the feel- 
ins: concerns of its bodily subsistence : there 
inventive industry, the fruitful source ot en~ 
joyments* solicited the riches of. every cli- 
mate; and the purple of Tyre was commer- 
cially exchanged for the precious thread of 
Serica; the soft tissues of Cassimere for the 
sumptuous carpets of Lydia; the amber of 
the Baltic for the pearls and perfumes of Ara- 
bia; the gold of Ophir for the pewter of 
Thule * 

And now what remains are there still sub- 
sisting of this opulent and powerful city, but 
a doleful skeleton ! What evidence of its vast 
empire, but an obsolete and obscure remem- 
brance ! To the bustling throng which crowd- 
ed under these porticos^ a death like solitude 
lias succeeded. The silence of the tomb is 
substituted for the buz of public places of re- 
sort. The opulence of a commercial city is 
metamorphosed into hideous poverty. The 
palaces of kings are become the haunt and 
receptacle of deer; the threshold of temples 
is converted into a fold for the flocks; and 
unclean reptiles inhabit the sanctuaries of the 
gods. Ah ! how has so much glory become 
eclipsed! How has so much art and work- 
manship become annihilated! Thus, thus pe- 
rish the labours of men ! Thus nations and: 
empires transiently pass away ! 

* See note (a) at the end of the volume, 

b2: 



IB MEDITATIONS. 

The history of times past strongly revived 
arid crowded upon my thoughts. I called to 
mind those distant ages, when twenty cele- 
brated nations inhabited the country around 
me. I pictured to myself the Assyrian on the 
banks of the Tygris, the Chaldean on those 
of the Euphrates, and the Persian whose pow- 
er extended from the Indus to the Mediter- 
ranean. I enumerated the kingdoms of Da- 
mascus and Idumea; of Jerusalem and Sama- 
ria; and the warlike states of the Philistines; 
and the commercial republics of Phenicia, 
This very Syria, said I to myself, now almost 
depopulated, contained at that period, a hun- 
dred flourishing cities, and abounded with 
towns, villages, and hamlets (&). Every where 
one might have seen cultivated fields, fre- 
quented roads, and enrwded habitations. Ah ! 
what are become of those ages of abundance, 
vitality, and population? What are become 
of so many brilliant productions of the hand 
of man? Where are those ramparts of Nine- 
veh, those walls of Babylon, those palaces of 
Persepolis, those temples of Balbee and of 
Jerusalem ? Where are those fleets of Tyre, 
those dock-yards of Arad, those work-shops 
of Sidon, and that multitude of mariners, pi- 
lots, merchants, and soldiers? Where those 
husbandmen, those harvests, those flocks and 
cattle, with all that creative race of living be- 
ings, in which the luxuriant surface of the 
earth seemed to pride itself? Alas ! I have 
traversed this desolate country, I have visited 
the places, that were once the theatre of so 
much splendour, but I have met with nothing 



MEDITATIONS. 19 

but desertion and solitude ! I have looked for 
those ancient people and their masterly works, 
but all 1 have found is no more than a faint 
trace of them, analogous to that which the 
foot of a passenger leaves on the sand. The 
temples are overthrown, the palaces demol- 
ished, the ports filled up, the towns destroy- 
ed, and the earth, stript of inhabitants, resem- 
bles a dreary burying-place. — Great God! 
from whence proceed such destructive and 
melancholy revolutions? Whence comes it, 
that the fortune of these countries is so strik- 
ingly changed ? Why are so many cities de- 
stroyed ? And by what fatality is that pris- 
tine population prevented from being re-pro- 
duced and perpetuated? 

Thus, absorbed in contemplation, an inces- 
sant torrent of new reflections poured in upon 
my mind. Every thing, continued I, misleads 
my judgment, and agitates my heart with pain 
and uncertainty. When these countries en- 
joyed what constitutes the glory and felicity 
of mankind, they were an unbelieving people 
who inhabited them : it was the Phenician, 
offering human sacrifices to Moloch, who 
brought together within his walls the riches 
of every climate; it was the Chaldean, pros- 
trating himself before a serpent*, who subju- 
gated opulent cities, ravaged and laid waste 
the palaces of kings and the temples of the 
Gods; it was the Persian, the worshipper of 
fire, who collected tribute from a hundred na- 
tions; they were the inhabitants of this very 
city, adorers of the sun and stars, who erect- 

* The Dragon Bel, 



20 MEDITATIONS. 

ed so many monuments of affluence and luxu- 
ry. Fertile fields, numerous flocks, abundant 
harvests, every thing that ought to have been 
the reward of piety, was in the hands of these 
idolaters ; and now, when a believitig and holy 
people occupies the same countries, nothing 
is to be seen but solitude and sterility. The 
earth under these hallowed hands yields only 
briars and wormwood. Man sows in anguish, 
and the produce he reaps is sorrow and dis- 
quietude. War, famine, and pestilence, by 
turns assail him. Yet, are not these the chil- 
dren of the prophets ? This Christian, this 
Mussulman, this Jew, are they not the elect 
of Heaven, loaded with gifts of grace and mi- 
racles ? Why then is this race, so divinely 
privileged, deprived of those favours which 
were formerly showered down upon the Hea- 
then ? Why are these lands, consecrated by 
the blood of the martyrs, now destitute of 
those blessings, which their ancient inhabit- 
ants enjoyed ? Why have they beeri banished, 
as it were, and transferred for so many ages 
to other nations and climates ? 

And here, pursuing the course of vicissi- 
tudes, which have by turns transmitted the 
sceptre of the world to nations so different in 
manners and religion, from those of ancient 
Asia down to the more recent ones of Europe, 
this general term, by retrospective allusion 
to my native country, awakened in my breast 
the warm feeling of nationality; and, trans- 
porting my attention to my natal soil, all my 



MEDITATIONS. 21 

thoughts locally centered on its situation at 
the time I left it. # 

My memory represented to me its highly 
cultivated lands, its roads so admirably exe- 
cuted, its towns inhabited by an immense 
multitude, its ships scattered over every part 
of the ocean, its ports filled with the produce 
of both the Indies; and, comparing the acti- 
vity of its commerce, the extent of its naviga- 
tion, the richness of its buildings, the arts and 
industry ofits inhabitants, with all that Egypt 
and Syria could formerly boast of a similar 
kind, I amused myself with the idea, that I had 
rediscovered in modern Europe the past splen- 
dour of Asia ; but the charm of my pleasing 
reverie was presently blasted and dissolved 
hy the last step in the comparison. For, re- 
flecting, that the very identical places before 
me had once exhibited a picture of activity 
not less animated : who, said I to myself, can 
assure me, that the desolation I now witness 
will not one day be the lot of the nations in 
our own hemisphere? Who knows, but that 
hereafter some traveller, like myself, will sit 
down upon the banks of the Seine, the 
Thames, or the Zuyder sea, where now, amid 
the vortex of so many enjoyments, the heart 
and the eyes are not sufficiently capacious to 
take in the multitude of sensations that press 
for admittance; who knows, but he will one 
day sit down upon mute and solitary ruins, 
and weep over the ashes of the people, and 
the memorable records of their departed 
greatness? 

* In the year 1T82, at the close of the American war, 



2£ THE APPARITION. 

The very thought shot tears into my eyes ; 
and, covering my head with the skirt of my 
mantle, I lapsed into the most gloomy medi- 
tations on human affairs. Ah ! said I, in the 
midst of my sorrow, man is horn to be unhap- 
py ! a blind fatality sports with his destiny, 
(c) ! a merciless and cruel necessity governs 
by capricious chance the devoted lot of mor- 
tals ! No, I am wrong : it is the decrees of 
divine justice, that are now accomplishing! 
A mysterious God is exercising his incompre- 
hensible judgments! doubtless, he has pro- 
nounced a secret malediction against this re- 
gion of the earth ; he has inflicted a curse up- 
on the present race of people to avenge him- 
self of past generations. Ah! who shall dare 
to fathom the inscrutable depths of the Divi- 
nity ? 

And, here my senses sunk into a motionless 
stupor, drowned in the tide of profound me- 



CHAP. III. 

THE APPARITION. 

Soon after a noise struck my ear, some- 
what like to the agitation of a flowing robe, 
and the slow march of a foot upon the dry 
and rustling grass. Startled and alarmed, I 
gently raised my mantle; and stealing from 
beneath a timid glance around me, suddenly 
on the left, amid the obscure glimmerings of 
the moon, through the columns and ruins of 



THE APPARITION. 23 

an adjacent temple, methought I saw a pale 
apparition, enveloped in an immense drape- 
ry, such as spectres are painted issuing out of 
tombs. I shuddered; and, in this tumultuous 
state of frightful agitation, was hesitating whe- 
ther to fly, or to assure myself of its reality, 
when a hollow voice, in a grave and solemn 
accent, thus addressed me : 

" How long will the importunity of man as- 
sail heaven with unjust complaints ? How 
long will he vent his idle and clamorous ac- 
cusations against Fate, the presumptive au- 
thor of his calamities ? Will he never open 
his eyes to the light, and his heart to the sug- 
gestions of truth and reason! Truth, which 
every where presents itself to his senses with 
the most inviting effulgence, and yet he does 
not see it ! Reason, whose voice continually 
resounds in his ear; and yet his understand- 
ing does not hear it ! Unjust and thoughtless 
man! if thou canst only for a moment sus- 
pend the delusion, which fascinates thy sen- 
ses; if thy heart be capable of comprehend- 
ing the language and arguments of unsophisti- 
cated eloquence, interrogate these ruins ! lis- 
ten to the silent lessons which they read to 
thy reason! . . . And you, ye sacred temples! 
ye venerable tombs ! ye walls once so proud 
and glorious, that have been the witnesses of 
twenty different ages, appear in the i) jured 
cause of nature herself! give your attendance 
at the bar of an upright and sound under- 
standing;, and bear testimony before this tri- 
bunal, against a most unwarrantable and un- 
just accusation! confound the declamatory 



24 THE APPARITION. 

sorceries of false wisdom and hypocritical pi- 
ety, and avenge heaven and earth of man, 
their calumniator !" 

What is this blind fatality, that capricious- 
ly sports, without rule and laws, with the lot 
of mortals? What this unjust, this merciless 
and cruel necessity, which frustrates and con- 
founds the issue of actions, both of prudence 
and of folly? Wherein consist the maledic- 
tions and denunciations of Heaven against 
these countries ? Where are we to look for 
the credentials of the actual existence of that 
divine curse, which perpetuates this scene of 
depopulation and local desolation? Speak, 
ye monumental witnesses of past ages ! say, 
has Heaven changed its laws, and the earth 
itfr course? Has the sun extinguished his fare 
diffused through the regions of space? Do 
the seas no longer send forth their clouds ? 
Are the rain and the dew steadfastly fixed in 
the air ? Do the mountains withhold the wa- 
ter of their springs? Are the rivers dried up? 
and do trees and vegetables no longer bear 
fruit and seed ? Answer these queries, thou 
race of falsehood and iniquity; has God dis- 
turbed that, primitive and settled order, which 
he himself originally assigned to nature ? Has 
heaven denied to the earth, and the earth to 
its inhabitants, the blessings which they here- 
tofore dispensed ? If the creation goes on upon 
the same principles as before, if they have the 
same powers and means within their reach 
now that they had formerly, whence comes it 
that the present race is not distinguished by 
the same traits of character and fortune with 



THE APPARITION. 2- v J 

their ancestors? Ah! how falsely do you ac- 
cuse Fate and Divinity! How wrongfully do 
you make God the cause of your evils. Tell 
me, ye perverse and hypocritical race, if 
these places be desolate, if populous and 
powerful cities be reduced to absolute soli- 
tude, is it God that has occasioned their ruin ? 
Is it his hand that has thrown down these 
walls, sapped these temples, and mutilated 
these pillars ? or, is it the hand of man ? Is 
it the arm of God, that has carried the sword 
into the city, and set fire to the country 
around, thai has murdered the people, burn- 
ed their crops, rooted up the timber, and ra- 
vaged the pastures ? or, is it the arm of man ? 
And when a famine has been the result of this 
devastation and waste of produce, is it the 
vengeance of God that has sent it, or the 
senseless intoxication and frantic fury of man ? 
When, under the pressure of such a famine, 
the people have lived upon unwholesome 
provision, and a pestilence has ensued, is 
this affliction to be imputed to the wrath of 
Heaven, or to human imprudence ? When 
war, famine, and pestilence united, have, by 
a torrent of evils, swept away the inhabit- 
ants, and the land has become a desert, is it 
God, who has depopulated it ? Is it his rapa- 
city, that plunders the labourer, ravages the 
fruitful fields, and desolates the country ? or, 
is it the rapacity of those who govern ? Is it 
his pride, that creates murderous wars ? or, 
is it the pride of kings and their ministers ? 
Is it the venality of his decisions that blasts 
the fortune of families ? or, is it the venality 

c 



26 THE APPARITION. 

of those who are the personal organs of the 
laws? Are they, again, his passions, that, un- 
der a thousand forms, torment individuals and 
nations ? or, are they the passions of men ? 
And, if in the anguish of their misfortunes, 
they are too blind of understanding to see the 
proper remedies, is it the ignorance of God 
that is to be impeached ? or, is it their own 
ignorance ? Away then ye fretful mortals, 
away with your noisy accusations against both 
the decrees of Fate and the judgments of 
Heaven ! If God be good, will he make him- 
self instrumental to your punishment? If he 
be just, will he be the accomplice of your 
crimes ? No, no ; the caprice and inconstan- 
cy, of which man so loudly complains, is not 
the caprice and inconstancy of fate and pre- 
destination : the darkness, in which his rea- 
son strays, is not the darkness of God ; the 
source of his calamities is not seated in the 
distant heavens, but very near to him upon 
the earth ; it is not concealed in the latent 
bosom of the Divinity ; it resides in man him- 
self, he carries it with him in the inward re- 
cesses of his own heart. But, thou murmur- 
est and say est: Why have an unbelieving peo- 
ple enjoyed the blessings of heaven and of 
earth ? Why is a holy and chosen race less for- 
tunate than an impious race of infidels? De- 
luded man ! where lies the contradiction at 
which thou takest umbrage and offence? — 
Where the enigmatical inconsistency, in 
which thou supposest the justice of God to 
be involved ? Take the scales in which mer- 
cy and judgment causes and effects, are 



THE APPARITION. 27 

weighed, into thine own hand, and then tell 
me — -When these infidels thou alludest to at- 
tentively observed the laws of the heavens 
and the earth, when they regulated their in- 
telligent and industrious labours bv the order 
of the seasons and the course ot the stars, 
ought God to have disturbed the equilibrium 
of the world for the purpose of defeating their 
prudence ? When they cultivated, by the toil 
and sweat of their own brow, the face of the 
surrounding country, ought he to have inter- 
rupted the fall of rain, to have withheld the 
fertilizing dews, and to have caused thorns to 
spring up every where upon it ? When, in or- 
der to render this parched and barren soil 
more fertile and productive, they had, by 
dint of their own assiduity and perseverance, 
constructed aqueducts, cut canals, and carri- 
ed the distant waters across the deserts, ought 
he to have dried up the springs in the moun- 
tains? Ought he to have blighted the har- 
vests, which art had so abundantly promo- 
ted ? Ought he to have desolated a country 
by war, that had been peopled by peace ? 
Ought he to have demolished the towns 
which entirely flourished by the encourage- 
ment of industry? In a word, Ought he to 
have confounded and subverted what the 
brightest wisdom of man had been so sedu- 
lously employed in establishing? And, what 
species of infidelity is that, let me ask, which 
founded empires by prudence, defended them 
by courage, and strengthened them by jus- 
lice; which raised magnificent cities, formed 
large seaports, drained unwholesome marsh- 



28 THE APPARITION. 

es, covered the ocean with ships, the earth 
with inhabitants, and, like the creative spirit, 
diffused life and motion through the globe ? 
if such be characteristic of faithless impiely, 
what is true belief? Does holiness consist in 
acts of destruction ? Is then that God, which 
peoples the air with birds, the earth with ani- 
mals, and the waters with their finny inhabit- 
ants; Is that God, which animates universal 
nature, a God that delights in ruins and mo- 
numents of death? Does he require devasta- 
tion for homage, and conflagration for sacri- 
fice? Does he demand of his votaries expir- 
ing groans for hymns, desperadoes and mur- 
derers for his worshippers, and a ravaged and 
desert world for his temple ? Yet, ye holy and 
faithful generation of believers, what are your 
pious works? What are the fruits of your god- 
liness ? Ye have massacred the people, burnt 
and reduced their cities to ashes, destroyed 
every species of cultivation, and made the 
earth itself a perfect wilderness; and ye de- 
mand too the reward of your labours ! Ye 
roust indeed perform miracle ! Ye must raise 
from the dead the peasantry that ye have so 
savagely murdered ; ye must cause the walls, 
that ye have so wantonly demolished, to rise 
again; ye must make the flourishing harvests 
which ye have laid waste, to re-appear; ye 
must collect afresh the water into conduits, 
{hat has been uselessly diverted and squan- 
dered away ; ye must counteract the laws of 
heaven and earth, supersede the whole sys- 
tem which God has established for the dis- 
play of his greatness and magnificence, repeal 



THE APPARITION. 29 

that eternal code of laws, anterior to every 
other and to all the prophets; annul those 
immutable principles, and that fixed order of 
things, which can never, in their present state, 
alter the progress of the passions, nor the ig- 
norance of man. But, the victim of passion 
who is a stranger to these laws, the child of 
ignorance who observes no cause, and who 
foresees no effect, have said in the foolish- 
ness of their hearts : " Every thing proceeds 
from the womb of chance: a blind fatality 
distributes good and evil upon the earth; nor 
is prudence nor wisdom itself able to with- 
stand its sovereign influence." Or else, chan- 
ging their language, and assuming the tone of 
hypocrisy, they have exclaimed : " Every 
thing proceeds from God himself; who de- 
lights in deceiving the wisdom of the sage, 
and in confounding the reason and judgment 
of the learned." And ignorance hath ap- 
plauded herself in her own malignity; and, 
hath said, " Thus will I cope with science, 
which is a vulture to my soul : thus will I 
render inefficient and abortive, the prying in- 
vestigations of useful policy and genius, which 
are an eye-sore to my sight, and a dagger to 
my ear:" And ambition, w 7 aking from her 
dreams of rapine, and stretching forth her 
greedy hand, sternly rejoined : " I too, by 
dint of the same dogma, will oppress and do 
mineer over the weak; and will thus devour 
the fruit of his labour: and I will say, — It is 
God, that hath dec) eed it, it is fate, that hath will- 
ed and predestinated it" But, mark me, for I 
swear by all the laws of heaven and eartft 5 

c 2 



30 PREPARATORY EXPOSITION. 

and by those which governs the human heart? 
the hypocrite shall fall by his own hypocrisy, 
and the deceiver by his own deceit, and ra- 
pacity itself shall whet a sword for his own 
destruction. But, sooner shall the sun change 
his course, and light turn to darkness, than 
folly shall prevail over wisdom and genuine 
science ; sooner shall the planets start from 
their orbits, than the intrigues of blindfold 
stupidity and growling bigotry shall trample 
upon the sacred principles of heaven-born 
reason, and enlightened policy, or dethrone 
and banish them from their station in the ex- 
ercise of that virtuous and profound art of se- 
curing to man the birth-right of his ow r n na- 
tural enjoyments, and of establishing in his 
own heart the empire of his happiness on the 
solid basis of sympathetic feeling and recip- 
rocal justice. 



CHAP. IV. 

PREPARATORY EXPOSITION. 

Thus spoke the Apparition. Awed and 
electrified by this discourse, my heart was 
agitated by a multitude of reflections, and I 
remained for some time silent. At length em- 
boldening myself, I summoned courage, and 
thus addressed him : " Oh ! thou Genius of 
tombs and ruins ! thy presence and air of aus- 
terity have thrown my senses into disorder, 
but the justness of thy observations give con- 
fidence to my soul Excuse my ignorance, 



PREPARATORY EXPOSITION. 31 

Alas! if man be blind, can that which con- 
stitutes his pain and suffering, be also his 
crime ! The voice of reason was indeed a 
stranger to my ear ; but the moment it was 
properly made known to me, 1 gave it a wel- 
come reception. Yes, if my heart be legible 
to thee, thou well knowest how much it courts 
and pants after truth, how sincerely and pas- 
sionately it palpitates in quest of it : and, was 
it not for this that thou now beholdest me in 
this retired spot ? Alas ! I have wandered 
over the country, I have visited the towns and 
all the territory around ; and finding every 
where the sight of misery and desolation, the 
striking sentimental picture of the evils which 
distress my fellow-creatures, deeply afflicted 
my mind ! and I asked myself with a sigh : Is 
man, then, created to be the victim of pain 
and anguish ? I was, therefore, induced to 
meditate upon human calamities, that I might 
detect some remedy : and I said, I will sepa- 
rate myself from corrupt societies; I will re- 
move at a distance from luxurious palaces, 
where the soul grows depraved by satiety, 
and from the lowly cottage, where it sinks 
and is abased by indigence and penury. 1 
will go and dwell in solitude amidst the ruins 
of cities : I will enquire of the monuments of 
antiquity, what was the wisdom of former 
ages : I will awaken and call forth from the 
dormitory of sepulchres, the spirit that once 
gave animation and splendour to the states of 
Asia, and glory to the people : I will ask the 
ashes of legislators what causes have operat- 
ed in the rise and downfall of empires ; what 



32 PREPARATORY EXPOSITION. 

are the constituent principles of national pros- 
perity and misfortune ; what the genuine max- 
ims, upon which the peace of society and the 
happiness of man ought to be founded." 

I paused; and, with my eyes fixed on the 
ground, I waited the reply of the Genius. 
" Peace and happiness, said he, celestially 
descend upon him, who practiseth justice ! 
Yes, young man ! since thy heart courteth and 
aspireth after truth with honest sincerity; 
since thou canst distinguish her form through 
the dark mist of prejudices which blindfold 
the sight, thy enquiry shall not be fruitless; 
for, I will lay open to thy view the nature of 
that truth, for which thou art so chaste a can- 
didate : I will visually unfold to thy intuitive 
reason the knowledge which thou so virtu- 
ously covetest, and will shed in thy mind the 
luminous and hoary wisdom, that lies buried 
and recorded in these tombs, and the science 
of ages." — When, instantly approaching me, 
he stretched forth his hand, and touching my 
head, " Rise, mortal, said he, and disengage 
thyself from that corporeal mass of earth with 
which thy grovelling senses are incumbered." 
Quick as the electric shock, a celestial fire 
darted through my whole frame, and the ties 
which bind us to the earth, seemed suddenly 
dissolved : when, borne on the pinions of the 
Genius, I felt myself, like a light ethereal va- 
pour, transported into the regions above. — 
There, from the highest part of the aerial ex- 
panse, casting a look towards the inferior 
earth, I beheld a spectacle that was striking- 
ly novel. Under my feet, floating in space, a 



PREPARATORY EXPOSITION. 33 

globe similar to that of the moon, but less in 
magnitude and lustre, presented to me one of 
its phases,* which had the appearance of a 
disjc variegated with spots, some of them 
whitish and nebulous, others brown, green, 
and grey ; and, whilst I was exerting my ut- 
most efforts in surveying and discriminating 
these spots : — " Tell me, thou disciple of 
truth, said the Genius, hast thou any recollec- 
tion of the objects before thee?" Address- 
ing the Genius, I observed in reply, " If I did 
not perceive the moon in another quarter, I 
should suppose the orb below me to be that 
planet; for, it seems to resemble the aspect 
of the moon when viewed through a telescope 
in the dusk of an eclipse : one should rather 
apprehend the variegated spots are seas and 
continents." 

" True, said he, they are the very seas and 
continents of the hemisphere, of which thou 
hast been an inhabitant." 

" What ! exclaimed I, is that actually the 
Earth, that is inhabited by human beings ?" 

" The very same, replied he : That brown- 
ish space which occupies, irregularly, a con- 
siderahle portion of the disk, and nearly sur- 
rounds it on all sides, is what you call the 
■main ocean, which, from the south pole ad- 
vancing towards the equator, first forms the 
great gulf of India and Africa, then stretches 
to the east across the Malay Islands, as far as 
the confines of Tartary, while at the west it 
incloses the continents of Africa and of Eu- 
rope, reaching to the north of Asia. 

* See Plate 1. representing half the terrestrial globe, 



34 PREPARATORY EXPOSITION. 

" Under our feet thou wilt observe a pe- 
ninsula of a square figure, which is the desert 
country of Arabia ; and, on the left, that great 
continent, which is nearly as naked and bar- 
ren as the other in its interior parts, and only 
verdant as it approaches the sea, is the parch- 
ed soil, inhabited by a sable-complexioned 
people of the negro race.* To the north, and 
on the other side of an irregular and long- 
necked narrow sea,t thou mayest perceive 
the territorial tracts of Europe, rich in the fer- 
tility of its pastures, meadows, and cultivated 
lands. To the right, from the Caspian Sea, 
extend the sterile and snow-decked plains of 
Tartary. As the eye reverts towards us, it 
may discern a large whitish space, which is 
the dismal and vast desert of Cobi, separating 
the empire of China from the rest of the world. 
The dominion of China is situated in that fur- 
rowed extent of ground, which seems, by an 
oblique projection, to escape from the view. 
Bordering on this, are those detached slips 
and scattered points of land, which form the 
peninsula, and islands of the Malayans, the 
unfortunate proprietors of spices and per- 
fumes. The triangular section there, which 
projects so considerably into the sea, is that 
but too much famed peninsula of India (d.) 
You see the crooked windings of the Ganges, 
the rugged mountains of Thibet, the fortunate 
valley of Cassimere (12,) the briny deserts of 
Persia, the banks of the Euphrates and the T%- 

* Africa. t The Mediterranean* 



PREPARATORY EXPOSITION. 35 

gris, the rough bed of the Jordan (4,) and the 
streams and canals of the solitary JW/c." # 

" O Genius, said I, interrupting him, the or- 
gans of vision in a mortal being in vain at- 
tempt to discriminate objects at so immense 
a distance." Scarcely had the words quitted 
my lips, when, by a sudden touch, he render- 
ed my eyes more acute and piercing than 
those of the eagle; and yet the rivers even 
still appeared to me no more than the me- 
anderings of so many floating ribbons, the 
mountains no more than so many slight ridges 
or irregular furrows, and the largest cities so 
puny, that they looked, if I may use the com- 
parison, somewhat like to the small compart- 
ments in a chess-board. 

And the Genius, resuming the subject, with 
his pointed finger, marked out to me the dif- 
ferent objects individually, giving a circum- 
stantial description of them as he proceeded. 
" These heaps of ruins, said he, that you ob- 
serve in this narrow valley, watered by the 
Nile, are the remains of those opulent cities, 
that were once the pride and glory of the an- 
cient kingdom of Ethiopia (e.) Here is the 
wreck and remnant of its splendid metropo- 
lis, Thebes with its hundred palaces (f,) the first- 
born of cities, now but a residuary shadow, 
left by the transient sun-shine of fortune to 
commemorate the imbecility and short-lived 
brilliance of precarious greatness. It was 
there, that a people, now obsolete and for- 
gotten, discovered the elementary principles 
of science and of the arts, at a period when 

f See chart 7 plate I. to which the numbers here refer, 



36 PREPARATORY EXPOSITION. 

all others lived in an uncivilized state of bar- 
barism ; it was there that a race, (now re- 
garded as the refuse and outcast of society, 
because forsooth their hair is natu rally frizzled 
and wodly, and their skin black,) studied the 
laws and phenomena of nature, and borrowed 
from thence the archetype and model of those 
civil and religious systems, which still obtain, 
with some variation, in every nation of the 
globe. A little lower, the greyish spots that 
thou may est observe, are the pyramids (\,) 
whose ponderous masses must heretofore 
have overawed thy senses with stupendous 
wonder and astonishment, when on the spot. 
Farther on, the coast (3) that thou beholdest 
bounded by the sea on the one side, and by a 
ridge of narrow mountains on the other, was 
the site and abode of the Phenecian nations; 
there stood the powerful cities of Tyre, Sidon, 
Jlsmlon, Gaza, and Berytus. This river, that 
seems to have no issue or outlet, by which it 
discharges itself (4) is the Jordan; and those 
barren and dry rocks were formerly the the- 
atre of events, which have embraced the 
whole world in their consequences. Here 
are seen the desert of Horeb, and mount Sinai 
(5,) where, by means of which, the vulgar are 
universally ignorant, a profound and enter- 
prising character laid the foundation of insti- 
tutions, whose influence has been felt by the 
whole human race. Upon the barren tract of 
land on the confines of this desert, there no 
longer exists any percepible trace of splen- 
dour ; and yet this was formerly the seat of 
commercial affluence. Here were the ports 



PREPARATORY EXPOSITION. Si 

of the Idumeans (o-,) from whence the fleets 
of the Phenicians and the Jews, coasting 
along the peninsula of Arabia sailed to the 
Persian gulf, in order to take in lading, and 
to import from thence the pearls of Hevila, 
and the gold of Saba and of Ophir. Yes, it 
was here, on the coast of Oman and Bahrain, 
that the emporium of this luxurious species of 
commerce was fixed, which, as it removed 
and was transferred by mercantile revolutions 
from one countrv to another, became the cri- 
tieal die, by the cast of which the fate of 
ancient nations was decided. Hither were 
brought the spices and precious stones of 
Ceylon, the shawls of Cassimere, the diamonds 
of Golconda, the amber of the Maldives, the 
musk of Thibet, the aloes of Cochin, the mon- 
keys and the peacocks of the continent of In- 
dia, the incense of Hadramut, the myrrh, the 
silver, the gold-dust, and the ivory of Africa. 
From hence valuable cargoes of these com- 
modities were exported, sometimes by the 
route of the red Sea, in Egyptian and Syrian 
bottoms, which successively contributed to 
nourish the opulence of Thebes, of Sidon, of 
Memphis, and of Jerusalem ; and again, some- 
times by taking the course of the Tigris and 
the Euphrates, the same articles of merchan- 
dise tended to awaken the activity of the As- 
syrians, the Medes, the Chaldeans, and the 
Persians ; and, according as the riches, which 
they introduced, were used or abused, they 
became alternately a pillar of support, or an 
engine of destruction to their power, Radi- 
ating from this centre of agrandisement, the 



38 PREPARATORY EXPOSITION. 

magnificence oiPersepolis, acquired its collec- 
tive dimensions and growth, of which thou 
mayest observe the mouldering columns (8 ;) 
as did that also of Ecbaiana (9,) whose seven- 
fold walls that once inclosed it, are now le- 
velled with the dust; and of Babylon (10,) the 
relics of which are at present no more than a 
few confused heaps of earth (h ;) likewise of 
Nineveh (11,) whose name, at this day, is 
hardly recognised ; as well as that of Thapsa- 
cus, of Anatho, of Gerra, and of the desolate 
and memorable Palmyra. Oh ! ye names for 
ever glorious ! ye celebrated scenes ! ye re- 
nowned countries ! how replete is your mo- 
dern aspect with sublime instruction! How 
many profound truths are there written on the 
surface of that precious spot of earth ! Bear 
me, ye powers of memory, through the event- 
ful history of past times! and, ye places that 
have witnessed the life and progression of 
man in the circle of so many different ages, 
aid my recollection, while I endeavour to 
trace the revolutionary vicissitudes of his for- 
tune ! Develope the impulsive motives that 
actuated and interested his conduct on these 
important occasions, and measure the force 
and extent of its consequences through all 
the miscellaneous series of his public trans- 
actions ! Disclose the genuine sources, from 
whence he derived his success and his dis- 
grace ! Call forth his understanding to the 
knowledge of those causes, from which his 
misfortunes radically spring! shew him by 
the map of his own errors, the way to reform ! 
Teach and demonstrate to him the advantage 



CONDITION OF MAN, &C. 39 

and dignity of his own proper self-wisdom ! 
Hold up the mirror of past generations for his 
inspection; and, from the lives and experi- 
ence of those of his species who have gone 
before him, let him collect the constituent 
features of his own personal happiness, and 
bequeath the picture, as an instructive lega- 
cy, to posterity !" 



CHAP. V. 

CONDITION OF MAN IN THE UNIVERSE. 

The Genius paused ; and, after a kw mo- 
ments of silence, thus resumed his discourse: 
— " I have already observed to thee, thou 
friend of truth! that it is in vain for man to 
attribute his misfortunes to obscure and imagi- 
nary agents, and to derive his evils from the 
operation of mysterious causes, which have no 
concern in their production. In the general 
order of the universe, his condition is doubt- 
less subjected to a number of inconveniences, 
and his existence too over-ruled by superior 
powers ; but these powers are neither the de- 
crees of a blind destiny, nor the caprices of 
whimsical and fantastic beings. Man, like 
the world of which he forms a part, is go- 
verned by natural laics, regular in their opera- 
tion, unerring in their effects, immutable in 
their essence ; and these laws, the universal 
source of good and evil, are neither written in 
the distant stars, nor concealed in mysterious 
codes: inherent in the very nature of all ter~ 



40 CONDITION OF MAN 

restrial beings, identified by their existence, 
they arc at all times and in all places present 
to the mind of man; they act upon his senses, 
suggest themselves to his intellect, and annex 
to every action its correspondent punishment 
and reward. Let man study these laws, hi 
him understand his own nature, and the nature of 
the beings thai surround him, and he will soon 
discover the agents, by which his destiny is 
regulated, and the causes of his afflictions 
with their appropriate remedies. 

"When the secret power that animates the uni- 
verse, formed this habitable globe, it stamped 
on the beings which compose it certain proper- 
lies essential to each, which became their dis- 
tinctive rule of action^ the bond of their reci- 
procal connections, and the cause of harmo- 
ny collectively in the whole. Thus, it estab- 
lished a regular order of causes and effects* 
of principles and consequences, which, under 
the appearance of accident or chance, governs the 
universe, and maintains the equilibrium of the 
w r orld. Hence it gave to fire motion and ac- 
tivity ; to air elasticity ; to matter weight and 
density; it made air lighter than water, me- 
tals heavier than earth, wood less cohesive 
than steel; it ordained the flame to ascend, 
the stone to fall, and the plant to vegetate ;— 
to man, — whom it formed to encounter the 
action and impulse of so many different be- 
ings upon him, with the wish at the same time 
of preserving his frail existence, it gave the 
property of sensibility. By this faculty, ev- 
ery action prejudicial to his existence gave 
him an impression of pain and of evil ; and ev- 



IN THE UNIVERSE. 4 I 

ery one favourable to its preservation, an im- 
pression of pleasure and of 'good. By these im- 
pressions, sometimes led to shun what is of- 
fensive to his senses, and sometimes attracted 
towards the objects that sooth and gratify 
them, man became absolutely necessitated to 
love and preserve his existence. Self-preserva- 
tion, the desire of personal happiness, and an 
aversion to pain, are the essential and primary 
laws that Nature herself creatively imposed 
upon man, and which the ruling power, what- 
ever it be, has established to direct and go- 
vern him; and these laws, like those of mo- 
tion in the physical world, are the simple and 
generative principle of every thing that takes 
place in the moral world." 

Such then is the condition of man : in one 
view, subjected to the action of the elements 
around him, he becomes exposed to a varie- 
ty of inevitable evils ; and, if, in this part of 
her decree, Nature should appear severe, but 
in other respects just and even indulgent, she 
has, in another view, not only attempered 
those evils with proportionable blessings, but 
has, moreover, given him the power of aug- 
menting the one and diminishing the other ; 
and seems to have said to him,—- 44 Frail work 
of mine own hands, I owe thee nothing, and I 
give thee life. The world, in which I place 
thee, was not made for thee, and yet I errant 

1 1 « * ■' O 

thee the use of it. Thou shait find it a mix- 
ture of good and evil — but it rests with thy- 
self alone to distinguish the one from the oth- 
er ; the path is interspersed with flowers and 
thorns, — chuse thy own course, Thou hast 

d 2 



42 ORIGINAL STATE OP MAX. 

the free and sovereign disposal of thy own 
lot; I commit the whole of thy destiny to thy 

sole discretion." " Yes," continued the 

Genius, "man is become the ruler and self- 
conductor of his own fate; it is he himself, 
that has been the creator of all his various 
successes and disappointments; and though, 
on looking back upon the sorrows with which 
he has been tormenting his life, he should 
have reason to lament his own personal weak- 
ness and folly ; yet, when he comes coolly to 
consider, with what principles he first set out, 
and to what a degree of elevation they were 
capable of exalting him, he will probably 
find much greater cause to pique himself up- 
on his own powers, and to feel contentedly 
proud in his appropriate portion of natural 
endowments." 



CHAP. VI. 

ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN. 

Man at his first origin, being, by his natural 
formation, naked both in body and mind, 
found himself thrown by accident, upon a 
wild and desert earth. An orphan, abandon- 
ed by the unknown power that had produced 
him, he saw no supernatural beings or celes- 
tial visitors at hand, that were come to adver- 
tise him of wants which he owed merely to his 
senses, or to inform him of duties, originating 
•solely from those wants. Like other animals, 
possessing no experience of the past, no anti- 



ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN. 43 

cipatlon of the future, he wandered in the 
midst of forests, guided and governed simply 
hy his natural affections. By the pain of hun- 
ger he was directed to the search of food, and 
hence he began to provide for his own sub- 
sistence ; by the inclemencies of the weather 
he was excited to cover his body, and he ac- 
cordingly made himself cloathing; by the at- 
tractive invitation of a potent pleasure, he ap- 
proached a fellow being, and perpetuated his 
species. 

Thus, the impressions he received from all 
ranks of surrounding objects, rousing his fa- 
culties to action, developed by degrees the 
powers of his understanding, and began to re- 
move his profound ignorance. His wants call- 
ed forth his industry ; the perils he ran laid 
the foundation of his courage : he learned to 
distinguish the wholesome from the noxious 
class of plants, to resist and get the victory 
over the elements, to seize upon his prey, and 
to defend his life from the danger of attack ; 
and, by this means, alleviated a great portion 
of his misery. 

Thus self-preservation, aversion to pain, and 
the desire of personal happiness, were the simple 
and cogent motives, which brought man forth 
from the savage and barbarous state, in which 
Nature had placed him ; and now that his life 
is sown with all its various seeds of enjoy- 
ment, and he can count everyday of it by the 
comforts it affords, he may justly applaud 
himself, and triumphantly exclaim, without 
incurring the censure of egotism: " It is my 
own self that have produced the blessings 



44 PRINCIPE8 ov SOCIETY. 

which surround me: I myself am the inventor 
and operator of , my own felicity j secure ha- 
bitations, commodious raiment, abundant and 
wholesome provision, smiling valley** fertile 
hills, populous empires* ye arc all the works 
of my own hands; and, but for mo, the earth 
bad boon left in wild disorder, and would 
now have been no better than an und rained 
SWamp, a rude forest, and a dreary desert!*' 
"Well spoken, man-creator /" continued the 
Genius, "accept the tribute of my homage! 
'Tis thou, that hast measured the hounds of 
the heavens, and computed the magnitude of 
the stars; 'tis thou, that hast drawn the elec- 
tric lightning from the clouds, extended thy 
power over the fury of the sea and the tem- 
pest, and made the whole of the elements 
subservient to thy authority ! But, ah ! how 
is it, that so many sublime efforts of human 
genius are so woefully jumbled and intermix- 
ed with errors?" 



CHAP. VII. 

PRINCIPLES OF SOCIETY. 

Now, the first human beings, in the capaci- 
ty of hunters and fishermen, ranging the woods 
and borders of rivers in pursuit of game and 
Jish, and seeing themselves almost perpetual- 
ly beset with dangers, assailed by enemies, 
tormented by hunger, by reptiles and wild 
beasts, began to feel, individually, their own 
weakness in this unconnected and detached 



PRINCIPLES OF sociF/rY. \h 

stale; and, impelled by a common want and 
desire of security* and by a reciprocity of 
sensation and sentiment relative to the evils 
under which they severally suffered, they uni- 
ted their separate abilities and corporeal 
strength. Accordingly, when one man chan- 
ced to be exposed to daYiger, a number of lie 
rest assisted and defended him ; when one- 
wanted or fell short of provision, another 
shared with him his prey. Thus, men asso- 
ciated together for the mutual safety of their 
persons, for the augmentation of their powers^ 
and for the protection of their possessive en- 
joyments; and love of self thus became the 
origin and foundation of society. 

Afterwards, instructed by the repeated ex- 
perience of a multiplicity of accidents, by the 
fatigues of a vagrant and unsettled life, and 
by the painful anxiety resulting from frequent 
scarcity, men began to reason with them- 
selves, and said : " Why should we consume 
our days in search of the scattered fruits 
which a parsimonious soil affords? Why wea- 
ry and perplex ourselves in the precarious 
and doubtful pursuit of prey, that is constant- 
ly escaping us both in the woods and the wa- 
ter? Why not assemble under our own care 
and inspection the animals that we now live 
upon, and apply our time and attention to the 
increase and defence of them ? Thoy will af- 
ford us a supply of food, we can clothe our- 
selves with their skins, and we shall thereby 
live exempt from the fatigues of tin? day, and 
tin; solicitude? for the morrow^" Accordingly, 
one aiding another, they seized the nimble 



46 rniNf HPLE8 op SOCIETY. 

kid and the timid sheep; they tamed the pa 
tient camel, the furious hull, and the impetu- 
ous horse; and, congratulating themselves on 
the success of their confederate industry, they 
sat down in the joy of their own hearts, and 
began to taste the comforts of repose and uni- 
form tranquillity; and thus love of scl/\ the 
great cause of all their reasoning, became the 
institutor and founder of every art and every 

enjoyment. 
At this period of human society, when men 

could pass their days in more perfect ease 
and leisure, and in the communication and 
comparison of their ideas, gradual curiosity 

and reflection led them to extend their 

thoughts and researches into both terrestrial 
and Celestial objects, and into the nature of 
those things which seemed connected with 
their own existence, They observed the 
course of the seasons, the action of the 
(dements, and the properties of fruits and 
plants ; and, by this means, endeavoured to 
multiply the number of their enjoyments. Re- 
marking, in certain districts, that particular 
seeds contained a very wholesome substance 

in a small hulk, easy to be transported and 
preserved, and possessed of the faculty of re- 
producing the parent plant, they determined 
to imitate this process of Nature • and there- 
fore, with that vjew, committed to the earth 
barley, wheat, and rice J and the produce af- 
terwards abundantly answered their expecta- 
tion. Thus, they found the means of obtain- 
ing within a small extent, and without the ne- 
cessity of perpetually changing their situa 



PRINCIPLES of SOCIETY. 47 

uon, a plentiful and durable slock of provi- 
sion ; and, encouraged by this discovery, they 
prepared for themselves fixed habitations, 
and progressively constructed houses, villa- 
ges and towns; and at length assumed the 
form of communities and of nations ; and 
hence it. was, that bve of self became the ra- 
dical source of every thing that genius has 
developed, or human power effected. 

]>y the sole aid then of liis faculties has 
matl been able to meliorate his situation, and 

to raise himself to the exalted and astonishing 
proficiency of his present condition. Happy, 
too happy would have been his lot, had he 
Scrupulously observed the; law imprinted on 

his nature, and as scrupulously fulfilled the 
great object of it 1 But, alas! by the baneful 

indiscretions of his conduct, at one time over- 
looking, at another overstepping its limits, he 
has Ultimately involved himself in an end- 
less labyrinth of errors and misfortunes, from 
which he; is completely at a loss how to ex- 
tricate himself: and, thus love of self owe while 
deranged by the intemperate sallies of its 4>wn 
extravagance, at another grown blind and 
paralytic by virtue of its own inert and \\~A- 
less insensibility, has eventually introduced 
a train of calamities among mankind, whose 
number and direful consequences baffle all 
the arithmetic of human imagination to cal- 
culate. 



48 SOURCE OF THE 

CHAP. VIII. 

SOURCE OF THE EVILS OF SOCIETY. 

In fact, scarcely had the faculties of men 
began to expand themselves, than, carried 
away by the attraction of objects which in- 
vite and natter the senses, they gave them- 
selves up to the full scope of their unbridled 
desires. The quantity of pleasurable sensa- 
tions, which Nature had annexed to the gra- 
tification of their real corporeal wants in or- 
der to connect and link them with their ex- 
istence, no longer sufficed : not centented 
with the blessings which the earth afforded 
them, or which their own industry produced, 
they were desirous of monopolizing and trea- 
suring up a stock of enjoyments for them- 
selves, and therefore grew covetously ena- 
moured of those which their fellow-creatures 
possessed. Hence a strong man fell upon his 
weaker neighbour, in order to wrest from 
him the profit of his labour: and the weaker 
man solicited the succour of another weak 
person like himself with the view of repel- 
ling this violent encroachment. The strong 
man, again, in his turn, associated himself 
with another strong man, and they said to 
each other, " Why should we fatigue our 
limhs and our bodies in the acquisition of en- 
joyments, which we find already prepared for 
us in the hands of the feeble, who are unable 
to defend themselves against our superior 
strength ? Let us at once unite and plunder 
them. We can thus oblige them to labour 



EVILS OF SOCIETY. 4$ 

and toil for us, and we shall enjoy, without 
any trouble on our parts, the whole fruit of 
their exertions." Hence the strong, associat- 
ing on the one side, for the purpose of op- 
pression, and the weak for resistance on the 
other, people began reciprocally to torment 
each other, and a fatal and general discord 
became finally established upon the earth, in 
which the passions successively sprouting 
forth under thousands of new forms, have been 
in an incessant state of generation, and con- 
tinually adding fresh links to the chain of hu- 
man calamities. 

Thus, that very love of self which, when 
duly restrained within the limits of modera- 
tion and prudence^ was a source of extensive 
improvement and felicity, in its blind and dis- 
ordered state, degenerated into a deleterious 
poison : so that Covetousness, the child and 
companion of ignorance, has, inconsequence, 
been made the productive cause of all the 
mischiefs that have desolated the earth. 

Yes, Ignorance and exuberant desire, ye are 
the twin agents, that have forged all the 
plagues which infest the life of man ! It is you, 
who have inspired him with false ideas of 
happiness, and prompted him to misconstrue 
and infringe the laws of nature in the relative 
connection betwixt himself and exterior ob- 
jects ! Through you, his conduct has been in* 
jurious to his own existence, and he has there- 
by violated the duty he individually owes to 
himself as a moral being. It is you, that have 
steeled his heart against compassion, and his 
mind against the dictates of equitable justice ; 

E 



00 SOURCE OP THE, &C 

in consequence of which he has oppressed 
and afflicted his fellow-beings, and thereby 
violated the duty he owes, in a social view, to 
other moral beings like himself. By ignorance 
and inordinate desire, man has armed himself 
against man, family against family, tribe 
against tribe, and the earth been converted 
into a bloody theatre of discord, cabal, and 
robbery. It is these, that have sown the seeds 
of a clandestine war in the actual bosom of 
every state by drawing a line of distinction 
betwixt one citizen and another, and thus 
splitting the same society of men into oppres- 
sors and oppressed, masters and slaves. Un- 
der the influence of these, the heads of par- 
ticular nations, have, either by recourse to 
open violence, turned the arms of the commu- 
nity against itself, and built upon mercenary 
ambition the fabric of political despotism : Or 
else, by force of shrewd hypocrisy and finesse, 
have imposed, under the assumed title of the 
vicegerents of heaven, lying mandates, and a 
sacrilegious yoke; thus rendering rapacious- 
ness and credulity the fundamental principles 
of religious despotism. Hence they have 
eventually corrupted every idea of good and 
evil, justice and injustice, virtue and vice: 
and nations have in consequence become in- 
volved in the intricacy of a most deplorable 
labyrinth of errors and calamities ! . . . . Such 
are your works, ye friends of fell desire and 
greedy ignorance ! such are the malevolent 
demons that have laid waste the earth ; such 
are the decrees of fate, that have overturned 
empires ; such are the celestial maledictions 



ORIGIN OP GOVERNMENTS, &C. 51 

that have smitten those walls once so glorious, 
and converted the splendour of a populous 
city into a mournful solitude and a scene of 
ruins ! But, since all the evils that have af- 
flicted the life of man, have had their source 
and commencement in his own bosom, it was 
there also that he ought to have looked for 
their proper remedies, where certainly they 
are alone to be found. 



CHAP. IX. 

ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENTS ANB OP LAWS. 

But, it was not long before the period ar- 
rived, when men, tired of the wrongs and suf- 
ferings they had mutually brought upon each 
other, sighed after peace ; and, reflecting on 
the nature and causes of their misfortunes, 
they said to one another: "We mutually in- 
jure each other by our passions ; and, from all 
of us grasping at every thing, we individually 
possess nothing. What one seizes by force 
to-day, another dispossesses him of by the 
same means to-morrow ; and hence our gree- 
diness is constantly recoiling upon our own 
heads. Let us establish certain persons as 
arbitrators to decide upon our pretensions 
and claims, in order to conciliate and put an 
end to our disturbances. When the strong 
happens to rise up against the weak, the ar- 
bitrator shall check him, and shall hold every 
one at his disposal for the suppression of vio- 
lence; and the life and property of each be- 



52 ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENTS 

ing thus under a common guarantee and pro- 
tection, we shall collectively enjoy all the 
blessings of nature." 

Hence it was, that conventional compacts, 
tacit or expressed, were formed in different 
societies, and became the rule of action in 
individuals, the standard of their rights, and 
the law of their reciprocal relations. Parti- 
cular persons were also deputed to enforce 
the observance of these compacts; and into 
the hands of these official characters, the peo- 
ple committed the scale of justice for the ba- 
lancing of their rights, and the sword of pow- 
er for the punishment of transgressions. 

Thus, a happy equilibrium of power and 
of action, now became established among in° 
dividuals, which constituted the public safe- 
ty. The names of equity and of justice were 
acknowledged and revered in every quarter. 
Every man being thereby enabled to enjoy in 
perfect peace the fruits of his labour, gave him- 
self up to the natural emotions of his soul ; 
and the flame of activity, awakened and kept 
alive by real or expected enjoyments, called 
forth all the treasures both of art and nature. 
The fields were covered with crops, the val- 
leys with flocks, the hills with fruitage, the 
?ea with ships ; and man himself became hap- 
py and powerful upon the earth. 

Thus, the disorder which his own impru- 
dence had occasioned, was remedied by his 
own wisdom. But this very wisdom was sim- 
ply the effect of the operative laws of nature 
in the organization of his own being. For, it 
was to secure his own enjoyments, that he was 



AND OF LAWS. 53 

led to respect those of another, and his intem- 
perate lust after his own personal aggrandize- 
ment, found its corrective in a more enlight- 
ened love of self 

Hence, love of self the eternal spring of ac~ 
tion in every individual, has become the ne- 
cessary basis of all confederative association; 
and it is on the observance of this natural law, 
that the fate of every nation has actually de- 
pended. Have the conventional laws of hu- 
man fabrication accorded in any instance 
with this law, and run parallel with its inten- 
tions ? In every such case, each member of 
society, acting under the impulse of a vigour- 
ous instinct, has separately exerted all the 
powers of his nature, and the public felicity 
has been the resulting compound of all the 
sundry portions of individual felicity. Have 
these laws, on the contrary, impeded the ef- 
forts of man in his progress towards his own 
happiness ? In every such case, his heart, be- 
reft of its natural excitements, has drooped 
and sunk into languor and inaction; and the 
feeble and enervated state of individuals has 
consequently engendered universal debility 
in the aggregate body. 

But, since love of self by its occasional im- 
petuosity and improvidence, is incessantly ur- 
ging one man to encroach upon another, and, 
of course, perpetually tending towards the 
dissolution of society, the whole art of legisla- 
tion, as well as the virtue of the executive 
ministers, have, in effect, consisted in regula- 
ting the conflict of greedy and contending 
passions, in keeping all the different branches 

e2 



jL origin of governments, &c\ 

of power in a proper equipoise, and in secur- 
ing to each individual his own welfare, so that 
in case of struggle or hostilities betwixt soci- 
ety and society, the members should all feel 
an equal interest in the preservation and de- 
fence of the commonweal. 

Hence it follows, that the domestic splen- 
dour and prosperity of empires have been in 
proportion to the equity of their governments 
and laws ; and their respective power and in- 
Huence abroad entirely commensurate with 
the number of persons interested, and their 
degree of interest in the maintenance of the 
common cause. 

On the other hand, the circumstance of the 
popular body becoming gradually more nu- 
merous, and their consequent relations more 
complex, having rendered the exact delinea- 
tion of their rights a point of difficult attain- 
ment: perpetual excursions of the passions 
having: given rise to unforeseen incidents : the 
social compacts that were formed having pro- 
red faulty and inadequate, or become invali- 
dated ; the framers of the laws having, either 
from real or pretended indiscernment, mis- 
conceived the object and tenor of them, and 
the persons appointed to execute them, in- 
stead of curbing the licentious desires of oth- 
ers, having abandoned themselves to the same 
vicious propensities; in short, all these vari- 
ous causes co-operating, the peace of society 
at length degenerated into anarchy and wild 
disorder; and thus, false systems of law and 
unjust governments, the inevitable result of 
greediness and selfish ignorance, have sown 



GENERAL CAUSES, &C. 55 

the seeds of all those thorns of political afflic- 
tion, which have been the bane of public hap 
piness, and the subversion of states. 



CHAP. X. 

GENERAL CAUSES OF THE PROSPERITY OF ANCIENT 

STATES. 

Such, O man, who inquirest after wisdom, 
have been the causes of the revolutions of 
those ancient states, of which thou art con- 
templating the ruins ! Upon whatever spot I 
fix my view, to whatever period my thoughts 
recur, the same principles of growth and de- 
cay, of rise and decline, present themselves 
to my mind. When a people at any time has 
been powerful, or an empire has nourished, it 
was because the conventional laws were con- 
formable to those of nature ; because the go- 
vernment granted to every man respectively 
the free use of his faculties, and an equal se- 
curity of his person and property. When, on 
the contrary, an empire has sunk into ruin or 
dissolution, it is because the laws were radi- 
cally bad or imperfect, or because a corrupt 
government had trampled upon them and 
checked their operation. And, when laws 
and governments, which at the outset were 
strictly rational and just, have afterwards de- 
generated and become depraved, it is because 
the alternative of good and evil, derives from 
the very nature of the heart of man, from the 
succession of his inclinations and propensi- 



56 GENERAL CAUSES OP THE 

ties, the progress of his knowledge, the com- 
bination of events and circumstances; as the 
history of the species evinces. 

In the infancy of nations, while men still 
continued to inhabit the forests, all being sub- 
ject to the same wants, and endowed with the 
same faculties, they were all pretty nearly 
equal in point of strength ; and this equality 
was a circumstance superlatively advanta- 
geous in the formation of society: For, each 
individual, on that account, felt himself inde- 
pendent of every one else, so that no one was 
the slave of another, nor had any one an idea 
of being master, man being too much a no- 
vice at this time to know either servitude or 
tyranny. Furnished with the full means of 
providing for his subsistence, he never dream- 
ed of borrowing from strangers. Having nei- 
ther debts nor demands, he judged of the 
rights of others by the standard of his own, 
and thereby conceived strict and accurate 
ideas of justice. Equally ignorant of the art 
of indulging himself and of multiplying enjoy- 
ments, he thought only of providing what was 
simply necessary; and, as superfluity was 
consequently unknown to him, the desire to 
engross remained dormant and unexcited; 
or, if actually roused and pushed into action, 
from its attacking others in the possession of 
those things that were naturally indispensable, 
it was of course very vigourously resisted, and 
the bare apprehension of this resistance kept 
it in check, and thereby preserved a salutary 
and due equilibrium. 

Thus, primitive equality, even without the 



PROSPERITY OF ANCIENT STATES. Ol 

aid of a conventional compact, secured per- 
sonal liberty and property, and produced all 
the effects of good order and good discipline. 
Every man laboured singly and for himself: 
and the heart being busily occupied, had not 
leisure to stray in the encouragement of unli- 
censed desires. But, though his enjoyments 
were few, yet his wants were satisfied; and ? 
as indulgent nature had made these wants less 
extensive than his ability to gratify them, the 
progressive labour of his hands soon produ- 
ced abundance, and this abundance popula- 
tion. The arts now began to develope them- 
selves, and cultivation grew more and more 
diffusive ; till at length the earth, covered 
with numerous inhabitants, was divided into 
different domains. 

As the links of relation in society became 
gradually more enlarged and complicated, in- 
ternal order was necessarily more difficult to 
be maintained. Time and industry having 
created affluence, desire began to rear its 
head and to assume a much greater spirit of 
activity; and, as equality, which may easily 
support itself among individuals, could not, 
however, subsist among families, the natural 
equilibrium was consequently destroyed. — ■ 
The destruction of this natural equilibrium 
dictated the necessity of an artificial one in 
lien of it; they therefore proceeded, with that 
view, to the appointment of leaders or chiefs.^ 
and to the establishment of laws. But, as 
these laws were occasioned by the overgrowth 
of desire during the inexperience of primitive 
times, it was but reasonable to expect 



56 GENERAL CAUSES OF THE 

the same cause, would diffuse some part of 
its own character into their composition. — 
Various circumstances, however, concurred 
to check the progress of this malady, and to 
impose upon governments the rational neces- 
sity of being just. 

In fact, States being at first weak, and hav- 
ing external enemies to fear, it was of the ut- 
most importance to the chiefs not to oppress 
the subject : for, by diminishing the interest 
of the citizens for their government, they 
would have lessened their means of resist- 
ance, have facilitated foreign invasion, and, 
for the sake of superfluous enjoyments, have 
thereby endangered their own existence. 

Again, the character of the people, with 
respect to their domestic relations, was sove- 
reignly averse to tyranny. Men had been 
too long inured to habits of independence, 
their wants were too limited, and the con- 
sciousness of their own strength had become 
too familiar. a feeling, not to make them spurn 
at the very idea of it. 

States being locked and closely united to- 
gether, it was a matter of no small difficulty 
to divide the citizens, in order to oppress one 
part of them by means of the other: Their 
communication with each other was much 
too easy, and their interests too obvious and 
simple. Besides, as every man was at once 
both proprietor and cultivator, there could 
have been no inducement for any one to sell 
himself, and the despot, of course, would not 
have been able to find mercenaries. 

If dissentions, therefore, arose, it was only 



PROSPERITY OP ANCIENT STATES. 59 

between families and families, between one 
faction and another; and a large proportion 
altogether remained attached to one common 
interest. Disputes, no doubt, were in such 
case more warm, but the fear of foreign ene- 
mies mitigated their quarrels. If the oppres- 
sion of a party was at any time effected, since 
the earth was entirely open for its reception, 
and since men, still simple in their manners, 
found every where the same advantages, the 
worsted party forthwith emigrated, and carri- 
ed its independence to some other quarter. 

Ancient states then enjoyed within them- 
selves numerous means of prosperity and 
power : for, since every man found his own 
welfare in the constitution of his country, he 
felt a lively interest in its preservation; and 
if a foreign power invaded it, having his house 
and land to defend, he carried to the combat 
the ardour of a personal cause, and the pri- 
vate enthusiasm of self-defence became pub- 
lic patriotism. 

Again, as every action beneficial to the 
public, called forth its particular esteem and 
gratitude, every one felt his own importance 
in being useful, and added his spark to the 
general flame of emulation : and thus talents 
and civil virtues were multiplied by the love 
of self. 

As every citizen was called upon indiscri- 
minately to contribute an equal proportion of 
property and personal effort, their military 
resources and funds were inexhaustible, and 
the aggregate of their national force pecu- 



60 GENERAL CAUSES OP THE 

liarly formidable, whenever the states came 
to make a practical display of it. 

As the ground was free, and its possession 
easy and sure, every man was a proprietor; 
and the division of property, preserved the 
purity of manners, by rendering luxury im- 
possible. 

As every man laboured for his own self, 
cultivation was more active, and the articles 
of subsistence more plentiful ; so that private 
opulence in individuals constituted public 
wealth. 

As abundance in necessaries and provi- 
sion rendered the support of life perfectly 
easy, population rapidly advanced, and states 
quickly arrived at the ultimate complement of 
their plenitude. 

As the produce became greater than the 
consumption, the desire of commerce neces- 
sarily started up amongst them, and exchang- 
es were made between the different people, 
which proved an additional incentive to their 
activity, and the means of augmenting their 
reciprocal enjoyments. 

In a word, as certain places at certain pe- 
riods combined the advantage of good go- 
vernment with that of a good situation in the 
direct line of commerce, they became rich 
magazines of merchandise and trade, and 
powerful seats of dominion. Hence it was, 
that the riches of India and Europe, accumu- 
lated upon the banks of the Nile and the Me- 
diterranean, of the Tigris and the Euphrates, 
successively gave birth to the splendour of a 
thousand metropolises. 



PROSPERITY OF ANCIENT STATES. 6 I 

The people, having thus become rich, ap- 
propriated the superfluous part of their for- 
tunes to projects of general and public utility; 
and this was the era, in every state, of those 
works, the magnificence of which fills the 
mind with astonishment — of those wells of 
Tyre (i,) of those embankments of the Eu- 
phrates, of those subterraneous conduits of 
Medea (k,) of those fortresses of the Desert, 
of those aqueducts of Palmyra, of those tem- 
ples, of those porticos. . . . And, how labours 
of such immense magnitude could be perfect- 
ed without being burthensome on the several 
communities at large, is not so difficult to im- 
agine, when it is considered, that they were 
wrought by the equal and co-operative efforts 
of individuals, actuated by no compulsion but 
that of freedom, and burning with ambition to 
be named among the benefactors of their 
country. 

Thus ancient states prospered, because 
their social institutions were conformable to 
the genuine laws of nature ; and, because the 
members of those states, possessed of liberty, 
and secure in their persons and property, 
were in a capacity to display the full extent 
of their faculties, and the whole energy of the 
love of self 

p 



62 GENERAL CAUSES OF THE 

CHAR XL 

GENERAL CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN 
OF ANCIENT STATES. 

Greedy and licentious passions at length, 
however, excited a constant and universal 
struggle among men, which, prompting indi- 
viduals and societies to reciprocal invasions, 
occasioned perpetual commotions and succes- 
sive revolutions. 

At first, in the savage and barbarous state 
of the more primitive of the human race, this 
extravagancy of desire, daring and ferocious 
in its nature, taught rapine, violence, and 
murder; and the progress of civilization was 
thereby for a long time retarded. 

Afterwards, when societies began to be 
formed, the effect of the vicious habits which 
they had acquired, communicating itself to 
laws and governments, rendered their civil 
institutions corrupt in principle ; and arbitra- 
ry and forged rights were accordingly esta- 
blished, which gave the people depraved 
ideas of justice and morality. 

Because one man, for example, was strong- 
er than another, this inequality, the manifest 
result of natural accident, was taken for the 
actual law of nature (/); and, because the 
life of the weak was in the discretionary pow- 
er of the strong, and he did not take it from 
him, he knavishly usurped over his person, 
under the colour of this gratuitous self-made 
Imc\ the absurd right of property ; and the 



REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN, &C. 63 

slavery of invividuals thus paved the way for 
the slavery of nations. 

Because the chief of a family could exer- 
cise an absolute authority in his own house, 
he made his own humours and passions the 
sole rule of his conduct; he conferred or 
withheld his bounty without regard to equa- 
lity or justice; and, hence paternal tyranny 
laid the foundation of political despotism (m.) 

And in societies formed upon such kind of 
models, where time and industry had made 
men rich, avidity, though restricted by the 
laws, became only more artful and refined, 
without being at all less active. Under the 
mask of union and civil peace, it engendered 
in the bosom of every state an intestine war, 
in which the citizens, divided into opposite 
and distinct assemblages, ranks, classes and 
families, were constantly labouring to appro- 
priate to themselves, under the name of su- 
preme power, the privilege of extorting, mono- 
polizing, and controlling every thing at the 
simple beck of their own passions. And, it 
is this greedy spirit of usurpation, disguised 
under a variety of forms, but in motive and 
aim universally the same, that has been the 
perpetual scourge of nations. 

Sometimes setting itself up in opposition to 
the social compact, or in violation of the ex- 
isting one, it embroiled the inhabitants of a 
country in all the tumultuous hurricane of 
their jarring contentions; and thus the states, 
in the act of complete dissolution, were rack- 
ed and tortured, under the name of anarchy*, 



64 GENERAL CAUSES OF THE 

by the turbulent and fermenting passions of the 
whole of their members. 

Sometimes a people, jealous of its liberty, ap- 
pointed agents or ministers, who arrogated to 
themselves the powers of which they were on- 
ly the trustees or guardians, and wasted the 
public funds in bribery and corruption at elec- 
tions, in gaining partizans, and in dividing the 
people against itself. By these means, from 
temporary, they contrived to become perpe- 
tual, from elective, hereditary magistrates ; 
and thus the state, agitated by the cabals and 
intrigues of the ambitious, by the pecuniary 
influence of wealthy factionists, by the vena- 
lity of the indolent poor, by the empiricism 
and speech-craft of flowery haranguers and 
word-jobbing orators, by the daring audacity 
of the desperate and designing, and by the 
pusillanimous weakness of the peaceable and 
virtuous, was convulsively hurled and preci- 
pitated from the steady position of undisor- 
dered reason, and converted into a bedlam of 
frantic derangement and raging democracy. 

In one country, the chiefs being co-equal in 
strength, and mutually afraid of each other, 
formed impious compacts and coalitions, and, 
after sharing and distributing among each 
other, every species of power, rank, and hon- 
ours, assumed to themselves peculiar immu- 
nities and prerogatives, erected themselves 
into separate bodies and distinct classes, and 
tyrannized in common over the people ; and 
thus, under the name of aristocracy, the happi- 
ness and emoluments of the state were sacri- 



REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN, &C. 6Cj 

ficed and devoured by the hungry and unfeel- 
ing passions of the wealthy and theWtfgf. 

In another country, aiming- at the same end 
but by different means, sacred impostors made 
the credulity of the ignorant subservient to 
their iniquitous views. In the gloomy sanc- 
tuaries of temples, and behind the veil of al- 
tars, they made the Gods speak and act, de- 
livered oracles, worked pretended miracles, 
ordained sacrifices and offerings, and endowed 
holy institutions; and thus, under the name of 
theocracy and religion, the state was haunted 
and excruciated by a swarm of passions nest- 
ling in the heart of a greedy and ambitious 
priesthood. 

Sometimes, wearied of its disorders or its- 
tyrants, and desirous of lessening the number 
of its evils, a nation gave itself a single mas- 
ter. In that case, if the powers of the prince 
were limited, his only wish was to extend 
them; if left indefinite, he abused the trust 
that was confided to him ; and thus, under the 
name of monarchy, the state was harrassed and 
tortured by the restless and aspiring passions 
of kings and princes. 

Then the factious, taking advantage of the 
general discontent, flattered the people with 
the hope of a better master, scattered around 
them gifts and promises, and dethroned the 
despot, in order to substitute themselves in 
his stead; and subsequent disputes for the 
succession or the division of power thus de- 
luged the state with all the tormenting disor- 
ders and devastations of civil tear. 

In fine r among these rivals, one individual 

f2 



66 GENERAL CAUSES OF THE 

more artful or more fortunate than the rest, 
by gaining the ascendency, concentrated the 
whole power in himself. Hence, by a singu- 
lar phenomenon, one man obtained the mas- 
tery and lorded it over millions of his fellow- 
creatures, against their will, and without their 
suffrage or personal consent; and thus the 
art of tyranny sprouted forth anew from the 
regenerated root of exuberant desire. In fact, 
speculating on the visible spirit of self-inter- 
est, that sways and divides mankind, the am- 
bitious was studiously adroit in fomenting it. 
Hence he flattered the vanity of one, excited 
the jealousy of another, favoured the avarice 
of a third, enflamed the resentment of a fourth, 
and irritated the passions of all. By oppo- 
sing interests or prejudices, he sowed' the 
seeds of division and hatred. He promised 
to the poor the spoil of the rich, to the rich 
the subjugation of the poor; threatened one 
man by a second man, one class by another; 
completely detached the citizens by recipro- 
cal distrust, made their weakness the consti- 
tuent materials of his own strength, and sad^ 
died them with the galling yoke of opinion, of 
which they mutually tied the knots one for 
another with their own hands. By means of 
the army he extorted contributions, and by 
means of contributions disposed of the army; 
and, by carrying on the same kind of game 
with money and places, he bound all the peo- 
ple with an indissoluble chain ; and the sick- 
ly states, which they composed, fell away into 
the slow decline of despotism. 

Thus did one and the sa»e operative prin- 



REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN, &C. 67 

ciple, varying its action under all the forms 
that have been enumerated, incessantly shake 
the fabric of states ; and thus an eternal cir- 
cle of vicissitudes was generated from an 
eternal circle of passions. 

And from this unremitting spirit of self-in- 
terest and usurpation, there sprung two prin- 
cipal effects equally pernicious : the one was, 
that, by its subdividing societies into petty or 
fractional parts, a state of debility was indu- 
ced, which facilitated their dissolution; the 
other, that, by its always tending to concen- 
trate the power in a single hand, it was the 
occasion of societies and states being succes- 
sively devoured and swallowed up by more 
powerful ones; and hence became fatal to 
their peace and mutual existence (ft.) 

Just as in a single state, where the nation 
had been absorbed in a party, that party in a 
family, and that family in an individual; so 
likewise a similar kind of absorbent motion 
took place, in a more enlarged point of view, 
between state and state, attended with all the 
mischiefs in the relative political situation of 
nations, that the other produced in miniature 
in the civil relation of individuals. One city 
subjected another city its neighbour, and, by 
adding the conquest to itself, became a pro- 
vince ; in like manner, province swallowed up 
province, and coalsced into a kingdom ; and 
again, from the same contingency, two king- 
doms were incorporated, and thus furnished a 
bulky and unwieldy empire of gigantic mag- 
nitude. But, the internal force of these states, 
so far from increasing in proportion to their 



68 GENERAL CAUSES OF THE 

mass, was, on the contrary, diminished; and, 
so far from the condition of the people being 
meliorated and rendered more happy, it be- 
came from day to day more painful and 
wretched from a train of reasons eternally 
flowing from the nature of things 

Because, from the boundaries of states be- 
coming extended, their administration became 
more complicated and difficult; and, in order 
to give motion to the mass, it was necessary 
to increase and afford a more active range to 
the prerogatives of the executive branch.; and 
thus there was no longer any proportion 
between the duty of sovereigns and their 
power : 

Because despots, feeling their own weak- 
ness, dreaded every thing that tended to de- 
velope the force of nations, and therefore 
made it their study to attenuate it : 

Because nations, from being separated and; 
estranged from each other by the prejudices 
of ignorance and by inveterate enmities, se- 
conded the perverse disposition of govern- 
ments, and, from each assembling around it- 
self a groupe of collateral and mercenary ad* 
herents, they reciprocally aggravated their 
own slavery : 

Because, in proportion as the balance of 
power between states was broken, it became 
easy for the strong to overwhelm the weak. 

Finally, because, in proportion as one state 
became incorporated in another state, the 
people were stripped of their laws, their cus- 
toms, and their peculiar governments, by 
which they were nominally distinguished from 



REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN, &C. 69 

each other; and thus they lost that national 
love of self which gave them all their energy in 
the character of independent communities. 

And despots, considering empires in the 
light of domains or private estates, and the 
people as their property, abandoned them- 
selves to the most brutal depredations, and 
to all the lawless excesses of the most arbi- 
trary authority. 

And all the public force and wealth of na- 
tions were converted into a private supply to 
be lavished and befooled away in the personal 
expenditure and on the babyisms and whims of 
a single individual; and kings, in the yawning 
wearisomness of luxurious satiety, patronized 
and indulged in every thing that vanity and 
artificial taste could dictate (o.) They must 
forsooth have gardens constructed upon arch- 
es, and rivers carried to the summit of moun- 
tains; for them too, fertile fields must be 
changed into parks for deer, lakes formed 
where there was no water, and rocks elevated 
in the midst of lakes ; they must have palaces 
constructed of marble and porphyry, and the 
furniture ornamented with gold and diamonds. 
Millions of hands were thus employed in fri- 
volous and useless labours; and the luxury 
and absurdities of princes, being aped by 
their parasites, and descending step by step 
to the very lowest ranks in society, became a 
general source of corruption and empoverish- 
ment. 

And, from this insatiable thirst of enjoy* 
ments, the ordinary taxation becoming incom- 
petent to the expenditure, the quota was ac~ 



70 GENERAL CAUSES OF THE 

cordingly augmented : the consequence of 
which was, that the cultivator, finding his toil 
increase without any indemnification, grew 
dispirited and lost his wonted courage; the 
merchant seeing himself robbed, became sick 
and disgusted with his own industry ; and the 
multitude, condemned to a state of poverty, 
exerted themselves no farther than the bare 
procurement of necessaries required, so that 
every species of productive activity was to- 
tally destroyed. 

The surcharge of taxes rendering the pos- 
session of lands peculiarly burthensome, the 
humble proprietor, pining under the heavy 
heart-ache of discontent, abandoned his 
ground, or sold it to the man of power and 
opulence ; and hence the mass of wealth be- 
came centered in a few individuals. Again, 
as the laws and institutions were favourable 
to this partial accumulation of property, na- 
tions were in consequence divided into a 
small body of indolent rich, and a multitude 
of mercenary poor. The people, thus reduc- 
ed to the lowest degree of indigence, debased 
themselves ; the great, cloyed with superflui- 
ty, became, in their turn, depraved ; and the 
number of citizens really interested in the 
welfare and preservation of the state, decreas- 
ing, its strength and existence were, of course, 
so much the more precarious. 

Besides, as there was nothing to excite 
emulation or encourage instruction, the minds 
of men sunk into profound ignorance. 

The administration of affairs being more- 
over secret and mysterious, there remained no 



REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN, &C. 71 

visible means of reform or prospect of better 
times ; and, as the chiefs ruled only by vio- 
lence and fraud, the people looked upon them 
in no other view, than as a faction of public 
enemies ; and therefore all harmony between 
the governed and the governors was necessa- 
rily at an end. 

It was amid this nest of pestilential corrup- 
tion, that the states of opulent Asia became 
enervated ; but it happened, however, at 
length, that the vagrant and poor inhabitants 
of the deserts and the adjacent mountains grew 
anxiously covetous of the seducing enjoyments 
of the fertile plains ; and, instigated by a com- 
munity of desires, they attacked polished em- 
pires, and overturned the thrones of despots. 
The revolutions thus accomplished were ra- 
pid and easy ; first, because the policy of ty- 
rants had previously rendered their subjects 
feeble and effeminate, razed the fortresses, 
and destroyed their military ardour; and se- 
condly, because the oppressed subject was 
without personal interest, and the mercenary 
soldier without courage. 

The result of whole nations being, through 
the co-operation of these circumstances, re- 
duced to a state of slavery by hordes of bar- 
barians, was, that the empires, formed of a 
conquering and a vanquished people, united 
in their bosoms two classes of men naturally 
opposite and inimical to each other. Hence 
all the principles of society became dissolv- 
ed : there was no longer either a common in- 
terest, or a public spirit: on the contrary, a 
distinction of casts and of kindred was esta- 



72 GENERAL CAUSES OP THE 

blished, which reduced the maintenance of 
disorder into a regular system ; and, accord- 
ing as a man was descended from this or that 
blood, he was born vassal or tyrant, live-stock 
or proprietor. 

The oppressors, being, in this case, less 
numerous than the oppressed, it became re- 
quisite, in order to support this false equili- 
brium, to bring the science of oppression to a 
more consummate state of perfection. And, 
as the art of governing was now nothing more 
than that of subjecting the many to the few^ 
it became necessary, in order to obtain an 
obedience so repugnant to instinct, to esta- 
blish more severe penalties; and the cruelty 
of the laws consequently rendered the man- 
ners of the people completely atrocious.— 
Again, as personal distinctions established in 
the state two separate codes, two species of 
justice, and two kinds of rights, the people, 
placed between the natural inclinations of 
their hearts and the oath which their mouths 
were obliged to pronounce, had two con- 
sciences, operating in direct contradiction 
to each other: and ideas of just and unjust 
had, of course, no longer a foundation in the 
understanding. 

In this deplorable situation, the disconso- 
late people fell into a state of melancholy de- 
jection and comfortless despair; and, as na- 
tural accidents gave additional weight to the 
enormous load of evils under which they al- 
ready groaned, raving and bewildered amid 
such a number of calamities, they attributed 
the cause of them to the agency of superior 



REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN, &C. 73 

and invisible powers; and, because they had 
tyrants upon earth, they supposed forsooth 
that there were tyrants also in heaven; and, 
thus superstition came forth to aggravate the 
disasters of nations. 

Hence originated gloomy and misanthropic 
systems of religion, and doctrines of the most 
noxious tendency, which depicted the Gods 
with malignant and envious passions, like hu- 
man despots. To appease which, man offer- 
ed the sacrifice of all his enjoyments, punish- 
ed himself with a multitude of mortifications 
and self-denials, and thereby counteracted 
and opposed the genuine laws of nature. 
Considering his pleasures as crimes, his endur- 
ance and sufferings as expiations, he endeavour- 
ed to cherish a passion for pain, and to abjure and 
renounce all love for himself ; he persecuted his 
senses, abominated and detested his life, and 
by a self crucifying and antisocial system of mo- 
rals, nations thus habitually lapsed into a mor- 
bid and sullen apathy, pregnant with all the 
torpid inactivity of death itself. 

But, as provident nature had gifted the 
heart of man with an inexhaustible fund of 
hope, on perceiving his desires frustrated in 
the search of happiness here, he resolved to 
pursue it elsewhere. Hence, by a pleasing 
illusion, he feigned to himself another country, a 
delicious asylum, where, out of the reach of 
tyrants, he should regain all his lost rights. 
But this self-enchantment only opened a door 
for the introduction of a new train of disor- 
ders. For, smitten with the captivating per- 
spective of his imaginary world, man now des- 

G 



74 GENERAL CAUSES OF THE 

pised the world of nature, and for visionary 
hopes rejected the reality itself. He no longer 
considered his life but as a fatiguing journey, 
or a. painful dream: — his body as a prison that 
withheld him from his expected state of feli- 
city, and the earth as a place of exile and pil- 
grimage, which he disdained to cultivate. At 
this period a sacred sloth diffused itself through 
the political world, in consequence of which the 
fields were deserted^ waste lands were aug- 
mented, empires were dispeopled, and public 
works neglected ; while ignorance, supersti- 
tion, and fanaticism, every where combining 
their baleful influence, multiplied the vestiges 
of devastation and ruin in all quarters. 

Thus, agitated by their own passions, men^ 
whether in their collective or individual capa- 
city, altogether greedy and improvident, pas- 
sing from slavery to tyranny, from pride to de- 
basement, from presumption to despondency, 
have been themselves the eternal instruments 
of their own misfortunes. 

Such was the natural simplicity of the prin- 
ciples, by which the destiny of ancient states 
was directed ; such was the concatenation of 
causes and effects, according to which they 
severally rose or fell in the scale of fortune, 
just as the physical laws of the human heart 
were observed or infringed. In the succes- 
sive series of their vicissitudes, a hundred dif- 
ferent people, a hundred empires, by their 
periodical declension, power, conquest, or an- 
nihilation, have, at intervals, read again and 
again these awful and instructive lessons to 
mankind. And yet all these tremendous and 



REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN, &C. 75 

salutary remonstrances are at present either 
obsolete or thrown away upon succeeding ge- 
nerations! The disorders of past times have 
re-appeared in the present ! The leaders of 
governments still march on in the same fatal 
paths of falsehood and deceitful tyranny : and 
the people still wander, as of old, in the gloo- 
my darkness of blindfold superstition and be- 
wildered ignorance !" 

" Well !" continued the Genius, assuming a 
more stern and emphaticai tone of speech, 
" since the experience bequeathed to the 
present race of men by those of past ages is 
either frowned upon, or become superanua- 
ted and extinct : since the errors and dismal 
misconduct of their predecessors are no long- 
er doomed to enlighten the practice of poste- 
rity, the terrible examples that are now for- 
gotten, and the tragic scenes which were for- 
merly acted by the people of antiquity, are 
now about to be re-exhibited; fresh revolu- 
tions will again distract communities and em- 
pires; powerful thrones will, as before, be 
overthrown, and melancholy catastrophes re- 
mind the human species, that the laws of na- 
ture and the precepts of wisdom and of truth 
cannot be trampled upon with impunity." 



76 LESSONS, TAUGHT 

CHAP. XII. 

LESSONS, TAUGHT BY THE ANCIENTS, REPEATED 
IN MODERN TIMES. 

Such was the discourse, which the Genius 
addressed to me. — Struck with the justness 
and impressive cogency of his narration, and, 
a multiplicity of ideas crowding upon my 
mind, which, while they thwarted my habits, 
led my judgment at the same time captive, I 
remained deeply absorbed in a profound si- 
lence. Meanwhile, as in this serious and pen- 
sive attitude, I kept my eyes fixed upon Asia, 
volumes of smoke and of flames northward, 
on the shores of the Black Sea, and in the 
plains of the Crimea, suddenly attracted my 
attention. They appeared to ascend* at the 
same time from every part of the peninsula, 
and then, after passing by the isthmus to the 
continent, they pursued their course, as if 
driven by a westerly wind, along the muddy 
lake of Jlsoph, and were lost in the verdant 
plains of the Cohan. Observing more atten- 
tively the direction of these volumes of smoke, 
1 perceived that they were preceded or fol- 
lowed by swarms of moving beings, which, 
like ants or locusts disturbed by the foot of a 
passenger, were most busily active. Some- 
times they seemed to move onward, and to 
rush with precipitation against each other, 
and numbers, subsequent to this violent ap- 
proach, remained perfectly motionless. Whilst 
raj mind was anxiously engaged by the singu- 
larity of this appearance, and I was striving 



BY THE ANCIENTS, &C. 77 

to distinguish the objects : — " Dost thou see 
those fires," said the Genius, " which spread 
over the earth, and art thou acquainted with 
their causes and effects ?" — Addressing the 
Genius, I replied, "I see indeed columns of 
flame and smoke, and something like insects 
accompanying them; but, discerning only ve- 
ry indistinctly even towns and monuments, 
how can my sight have an accurate percep- 
tion of such microscopic and diminutive crea- 
tures? All I can see is. that these insects 
seem to carry on a sort of mock battles ; for, 
they appear to advance, approach, attack, 
and pursue each other." — " There is no mock- 
ery in the case," said the Genius : "they are 
actually fighting in good earnest"- — " And 
what, in the name of wonder," said I, " are 
those silly and furious little animalcules, that 
are so very active in destroying each other? 
Is not their life short enough, that live only for 
a single day, without further abridging it by vi- 
olence and murder ?' — Scarcely had the ques- 
tion escaped my lips, when, on a sudden, touch- 
ing my eyes and ears, — "Listen" said he, " and 
observe."-— Immediately, directing my eyes to- 
wards the same objects, u Alas!" said I, pier- 
ced with anguish, " those columns of flame, 
those insects, O Genius ! are absolutely men 
and the ravages of war! Those blazing streams 
of fire ascend from towns and villages ! I see- 
the horsemen that are setting them in flames i 
I see them with their drawn sabres over-run- 
ning the country. Multitudes of old men, wo- 
men, and children, are flying in dismay be 
fore them, I see other horsemen.; who, with 



78 LESSONS, TAUGHT 

their pikes upon their shoulders, accompany 
and direct them : I can even distinguish by 
their horses of reserve which they lead, by 
their kalpacks, and by their tufts of hair (j?,) 
that they are Tartars ; and, without doubt, 
those who pursue them in triangular hats and 
green uniforms are Muscovites. Yes, yes, now 
I understand it: the war has just broken out 
afresh between the empire of the Czars and 
that of the Sultans." — " No, not yet," replied 
the Genius; " this is only the prelude to it. 
These Tartars have been, and would still be 
troublesome neighbours; but the Muscovites 
are ridding themselves of them. Their coun- 
try is a very convenient and desirable ob- 
ject to them ; the acquisition of it will round 
and make their dominion more compact ; and, 
as a preparatory step to the revolutionary 
project that has been conceived, the throne 
of the Guerais is overthrown." 

And i actually saw the Russian standards 
floating on the Crimea, and their naval flag 
soon after displayed upon the Euxine. 

Meanwhile, at (he cries of the fugitive Tar- 
tars, the empire of the Mussulmen was in com- 
motion. " Our brethren," exclaimed the chil- 
dren of Mahomet, "are driven from their ha- 
bitations; the people of the Prophet are out- 
raged ; infidels are in possession of a conse- 
crated land (9-,) and profane the temples of 
Islamism ! Let us arm ourselves for the com- 
bat, in order to avenge the glory of God and 
our own cause." 

Accordingly, a general preparation for war 
took place in the two empires. Armed men, 



BY THE ANCIENTS, &C. 79 

provisions, ammunition, and all the murderous 
accoutrements of battle were every where 
mustered. But, my attention was more par- 
ticularly caught by the immense crowds that, 
in both nations thronged to the temples. On 
one side, the Mussulmen, assembled before 
their mosques, washed their hands and feet, 
pared their nails, and combed their beard ; 
then spreading carpets upon the ground, and 
turning themselves towards the south, with 
their arms sometimes crossed and sometimes 
extended, they performed their genuflections 
and prostrations. And, calling to mind the 
disasters they had experienced during the 
last war, they cried out : — " Oh ! gracious 
and merciful God, hast thou then abandoned 
thy faithful people ? Why dost Thou, who 
hast promised to thy Prophet the dominion of 
nations, and signalized religion by so many 
triumphs, deliver up true believers to the sword 
of infidels?'''' And the Imans and the Santons 
said to the people : " It is the chastisement of 
your sins. Ye eat pork, ye drink wine, and 
ye touch things that are unclean : wherefore 
God hath punished you. Do penance, purify 
yourselves, and say your creed ;* fast from the 
rising to the setting, sun; give tithes of your 
goods to the mosques : go to Mecca, and God 
will render your arms victorious." Then the 
people, resuming their courage, cried aloud 
in a furious transport of passion: " There is 
but one God, and Mahomet is his Prophet ! 
accursed be every one that believeth not!. .. 
Indulgent God! grant us power to extermi- 

* " There is but one God, and Mahomet is his Prophet," 



80 LESSONS, TAUGT 

nate these Christians : it is for thy glory that 
we tight, and by our death we are martyrs to 
thy name." — And having offered sacrifices, 
they prepared themselves for battle. 

Again, the Russians, in like manner, on their 
knees, exclaimed " Let us give thanks to God, 
and celebrate his power: for, he has strength- 
ened our arm to humble his enemies Be- 
neficent God ! incline thine ear to our pray- 
ers. To please thee, we will, for three days, 
eat neither meat nor eggs. Grant us power 
to exterminate those impious Mahometans, 
and to overthrow their empire; and we will 
give thee tithes of the spoil, and erect new tem- 
ples for thy worship." The priests then filled 
the churches with a cloud of smoke, and said 
to the people: " We pray for you, and God 
accepts our incense, and blesses your arms. 
Continue to fast and to fight ; tell us the faults 
you have secretly committed; and bestow 
your goods on the church ; and we will ab- 
solve you of your sins, and you shall die in a 
state of grace." — And they sprinkled water 
on the people, and distributed among them 
small bones of departed saints to serve as 
amulets and talismans ; and the people breath- 
ed nothing but war and slaughter. 

Struck with the contrast of the same pas- 
sions, and lamenting to myself their perni- 
cious consequences, I was reflecting on the 
difficulty the common judge betwixt the two 
would find in complying with such opposite 
demands, when the Genius, in an angry tone, 
vehemently exclaimed : 

" What sounds of infatuation and madness 



BY THE ANCIENTS, &C. 81 

are those which stun my ear? What blind and 
delirious insanity is this, which perverts the 
minds of nations ? Return, ye sacrilegious 
prayers, to the earth from whence ye pro- 
ceed ! Repel, ye heavens, these murderous 
vows, these impious thanksgivings, this fawn- 
ing blasphemy ! Is it thus, ye profane and sil- 
ly mortals, that ye revere the Divinity ? And 
how do ye think that he, whom ye call your 
common Father, ought to receive the homage 
of his children, who butcher and massacre 
each other? Say, ye Conquerors, with what 
countenance ought he to behold your arms 
reeking with the very blood of his own paren- 
tal and divine creation ? Tell me, ye conquer- 
ed, what hope do ye, or can ye place in all 
those plaintive supplications and vain wail- 
ings of contrition ? Has God, do ye think, the 
heart of Man, and passions to make him 
changeable ? Is he swayed, like you by ven- 
geance and pity, by rage and penitence ? 
What preposterous and base ideas have men 
conceived of the most exalted of beings! To 
hear these people, one should imagine God to 
be of as whimsical and capricious a temper 
as Man himself: that He is alternately vexed 
and pacified, has temporary paroxysms of 
love and of hatred, and only chastises or ca- 
resses by fits and starts; that he has the 
weakness or meanness to smother and dis- 
guise his resentments; that he has the child- 
ish cruelty, inconsistency, and perfidy, in op- 
position to the rest of the attributes ascribed 
to Him, to spread snares for men merely to 
see them caught in them ; that He punishes 



82 LESSONS, TAUGHT 

the evil which He himself permits ; that He 
foresees crimes and guilt without preventing 
them; that, like a corrupt judge, He is to be 
bribed and influenced by gifts and offerings ; 
that, like a fickle despot, He one moment 
makes laws, and the next revokes them ; that, 
like a peevish tyrant, He withholds or dispens- 
es his favours without rule or distinction, and 
is only to be won upon by the very grossest 

adulation and servility Yes, yes, I have 

now detected the falsehood and deception of 
man ! On reviewing the picture, which he has 
drawn of the Divinity, I said to myself: " JVo> 
no, it is not God that hath made Man after his own 
image : it is J\Ian, that hath personified and made 
God after his own image; he has gifted Him 
with a mind shaped precisely after his own, 
palmed upon him human passions, opinions, 
and habits, and fashioned his judgment and 
capacity in exact conformity to the frame and 
dimensions of his own. — And, when, in this 
strange medley of discordant confusion, his 
principles have been shewn to be contradic- 
tory and self-subversive, in order to rescue 
the creature of his own prejudiced imagination 
from the charge of having committed suicide 
upon itself, he has put hypocrisy in the place 
of candour and argumentative proof, and, in a 
tone of affected humility, lamented the imbe- 
cility and uncertainty of human reason, calling 
the man-created absurdities naturalized in his 
own brain, by the high sounding title of the sa- 
cred mysteries of God" 

" Thus, he has said ; — God is immutable, and 
yet he has been for ever praying to Him to 



BY THE ANCIENTS, &C. 83 

induce him to change. He has said too, that 
He is incomprehensible, and yet he has for ever 
been pretending to be the interpreter of His 
divine will and attributes." 

" An upstart race of impostors has sprouted 
forth, like mushrooms, upon the earth, who, 
calling themselves the confidants of God, and 
magisterially assuming to themselves the offi- 
cial character of the sacred preceptors of the 
people, have opened the flood-gates of false- 
hood and iniquity. They have affixed an ex- 
traordinary degree of merit to formalities and 
performances, which are either indifferent in 
themselves, or ridiculously absurd. They 
have dignified with the appellation of virtue 
the observance of certain postures of the body, 
and the repetition or articulation with the 
mouth of certain words and names. They 
have transformed into impiety the eating of 
certain meats and drinking of certain drinks 
on some days, though not on others. Hence 
it is, that the Jew would sooner die than work 
on the Sabbath. Thus too it is, that the Per- 
sian would endure suffocation before he would 
blow the fire with his breath. It is thus the ori- 
ental Indian places supreme perfection in the 
smearing of himself with cow-dang, and myste- 
riously pronouncing the word Aum (r.) It is 
thus the Mussulman believes, that he has 
atoned for all his sins by the ablution of his 
head and his arms; and disputes, sabre in 
hand, whether he ought to begin this devotion- 
al act at the elbow (s) or at the points of his 
fingers. It is thus the Christian papist would 
believe himself damned, were he to eat the 



84 LESSONS, TAUGHT 

grease or fat of animal food instead of milk 
or butter. O what sublime and truly celes- 
tial doctrines ! What pure morality, and how 
worthy of apostleship and martyrdom ! I will 
cross the seas to teach these admirable laws 
to savage people and distant nations. I 
will say to them : " Children of nature, how long 
will you wander in the paths of ignorance ? How 
long will you be blind and shut your eyes 
against the true principles of morality and re- 
ligion ? Go and visit civilized countries, and 
receive lessons on these subjects from pious 
and learned nations. They will teach you, 
that, to please God, you must, in certain 
months of the year, starve yourselves nearly 
to death the whole day long with hunger and 
thirst. They will teach you how you may 
shed the blood of your neighbour, and wash 
away the stain, by repeating a profession of 
faith, and making a methodical ablution : how 
you may rob him of his property, and be ab- 
solved from the guilt, by sharing it with cer- 
tain drones in society, who are professionally 
devoted to live upon the fruits of his labour." 
" O thou Sovereig?i and mysterious Power of the 
Universe ! Thou secret Mover of JYature ! Thou 
universal Soul of every thing that lives ! Thou in- 
finite and incomprehensible Being, whom, under 
so many names, mortals, though ignorant of 
thee, yet worship ! God, who, in the immen- 
sity of the heavens dost guide revolving worlds, 
and people the abyss of space with clusters 
and millions of suns : say, in what view do 
those human insects, which f can with diffi- 
culty distinguish upon the earth, appear in 



BY THE ANXIENTS, &C. ti'O 

thy eyes ? Whilst thou art busily directing the 
stars in their orbits, what to thee are the pu- 
ny, insignificant worms, that are in commotion 
and squabbling in the dust ? Of what impor- 
tance to thy infinite greatness are their paltry 
distinctions of sects and parties? And what 
concern hast thou with the nonsensical sub- 
tleties, with which their folly is perplexing it- 
self?" 

" And do you, ye credulous mortals, point 
out to me the efficacy and beneficial tenden- 
cy of your practical discipline! During the 
many ages that you have observed or varied 
the canonical directions of your ritual, what 
changes have your religious pharmacopoeias 
and sacred nostrums wrought in the laws of 
nature ? Has the sun shone with greater bril- 
liance ? Is the course of the seasons in any 
wise altered ? Is the earth more fruitful ? Are 
the people more happy ? If God be benign 
and good, how can he be delighted with the 
infliction of your self-abusive and rigorous pe- 
nances ? If He be infinite, what addition can 
your homage make to his glory ? If, by his le- 
gislative decrees He has anticipated and pre- 
destinated every thing, can your prayers cause 
them to be revised or rescinded ? Reply, ye 
dupes of inconsistency, to these queries. 

" Again, ye conquerors, who pretend by 
your arms to serve God, is He, let me ask, in 
want of your aid? If he wishes to punish, are 
not earthquakes, volcanoes, and lightning at 
his command ? And, does a God of clemency 
know no other mode of correction but by to- 
tal extermination ? 

H 



86 LESSONS, TA0GHT 

" Ye Mussulmen, if jour misfortunes were 
the chastisements of heaven for violating the 
chastity of the jive precepts, would prosperity 
be showered upon the Franks, who laugh at 
them ? If it be by the laws of the Koran, that 
God governs the earth, what were the princi- 
ples by which He judged the nations that ex- 
isted before the Prophet, and all the nume- 
rous bodies of people who drank wine, ate 
pork, and never paid a single visit to Mecca, 
and yet were permitted to raise up powerful 
empires ? By what laws did he judge the Sa- 
heans of JYineveh and of Babylon ; the Persian, 
who worshipped fire ; the Greek and Roman ido- 
laters ; the ancient kingdoms of the Nile, and 
your own progenitors, the Arabs and Tartars ? 
How does he at present judge all the various 
nations that either disclaim or are ignorant of 
your worship, the numerous casts of India, the 
vast empire of the Chinese, the swarthy tribes 
of Africa, the Islanders of the Atlantic Ocean, 
the wandering and uncivilized race of Ame- 
rica ? 

" Presumptuous and ignorant mortals, who 
exclusively arrogate to yourselves the whole 
surface of the earth, as if forsooth no other 
men or principles could have an existence, 
were God to summon together at once all 
past and present generations, what numeri- 
cal proportion would those Christian and Mus- 
sulman sects, calling themselves Catholic or 
Universal, bear in the vast multitudinous as- 
semblage ? What would be the decision of 
his equal and impartial justice respecting the 
existence of a real Catholicism or Universalism 



BY THE ANCIENTS, &C. 87 

among mankind ? It is here, in estimating the 
general system of his government, that your 
mind loses and bewilders itself in the motley 
crowd of dogmatical speculations and con- 
ceits ; but, it is here, notwithstanding, that 
genuine truth shines forth in all its evidence. 
It is here, that we trace the powerful and sim- 
ple laws of nature and reason : the ubiquitarian 
laws of one common unitarian mover, a God im- 
partial and just in all his proceedings, who, 
in order that he may send his rain upon a 
country, asks not who is its prophet; who 
causes his sun equally to shine on every race 
of men, no matter whether distinguished by a 
white or a black complexion, on the Jew as 
well as on the Mussulman, on the Heathen 
idolater as w r ell as on the Christian ; who 
prospers the harvests where the hand of in- 
dustry is employed in their cultivation ; who 
multiplies the inhabitants of every country 
where order and active diligence prevail ; 
who causes every empire to thrive and flou- 
rish where justice is practically observed, 
where the powerful man is kept within due 
bounds by force of the laws, and the poor pro- 
tected by virtue of the same ; where the weak 
lives in safety, and where, in fine, all the mem- 
bers of the community indiscriminately enjoy 
the rights, which they inherit from nature and 
an equitable compact. 

" Such are the principles by which nations 
are doomed to be judged ! Such the true re- 
ligion, by which the fate of empires is balan- 
ced and directed, and which, ye Ottomans, 
has uniformly governed the destiny of your 



i>Q 



66 LESSONS, TAUGHT 

own empire ! Interrogate your ancestors? Ask 
them by what means they began to raise them- 
selves to that elevated pitch of greatness, at a 
time, when, in a state of poverty and idolatry, 
and only few in number, they came from the 
deserts of Tartary to encamp in those fertile 
countries ? Ask them, whether it was by Isla- 
mism, at that period unknown to them, that 
ihey conquered the Greeks and Arabs: Or, 
by courage, prudence, moderation, and una- 
nimity, the true constituent elements of all 
power in the social state ? In those days, the 
Sultan himself administered justice, and was 
personally vigilant in the maintainance of dis- 
cipline and good order : in those days the pre- 
varicating judge, and the governor who prac- 
tised extortion, were punished, and the peo- 
ple lived in peace and comfort : the cultivator 
was secure from the rapine of the janizary, 
and the lands were productive: the public 
roads were safe, and commerce disseminated 
abundance among you. It is true, ye were a 
confederacy of robbers, but ye were just 
among yourselves. Ye subjugated nations, 
but ye did not oppress them. Harassed by 
their own princes, they preferred the alterna- 
tive of becoming tributary to you. " Of what 
importance is it to me," said the Christian, 
" whether my master be pleased with images, or 
he dash them in pieces, provided he acts with jus- 
tice towards me ? God will judge his doctrine in 
heaven" Ye were temperate, and inured to 
hardship; your enemies pampered and effe- 
minate : ye were skilled in the art of warfare : 
your enemies had lost all knowledge of mili- 



BY THE ANCIExVTS, <$LC. 89 

tary principles: ye had experienced chiefs, 
veteran and disciplined troops : the hope of 
booty excited ardour: bravery was recom- 
pensed: cowardice and want of discipline 
punished ; and all the energetic powers of the 
human heart were called into action. Thus, ye 
conquered a hundred nations, and out of the 
component mass of vanquished kingdoms or- 
ganized and founded an immense empire. 

"But your character and manners after- 
wards wore a very different complexion. The 
laws of nature, however, did not less operate 
in the reverse of your fortune, than during the 
continuance of your prosperity. After hav- 
ing effectually devoured your enemies, the 
flame of your ambition^ always kindling afresh^ 
at length, by reverberating its own heat upon 
itself, became so concentrated and intense, 
that ye were yourselves eventually devoured 
by the intestine fire of your own passions. 
Having become rich, ye were divided among 
yourselves respecting the participation and 
enjoyment of your wealth, and disorder was 
accordingly diffused through every class of 
your society. The Sultan, intoxicated with 
his own greatness, lost sight of the object of 
his duty, and all the vices of arbitrary power 
began to unfold themselves. Meeting with no 
kind of obstacle to divert (he course of his 
desires, he became a most depraved being, 
Weak, and inflated with pride, he spurned 
from him the people, and would no longer 
permit himself to be influenced and directed 
by their voice. Ignorant, and bloated with 
flattery, he neglected all instruction, all studv* 

h2 



80 LESSONS, TAUGHT 

and sunk into a state of total incapacity. 
Thus, personally disqualified for the adminis- 
tration of affairs, he removed the burthen from 
his own shoulders, and committed the trust to 
secondary hirelings, and these mercenary 
agents deceived him. To satisfy their own 
passions, they stimulated and increased his ; 
they multiplied his wants, and his enormous 
luxury swallowed up every thing. He was no 
longer contented with the frugal table, the 
modest attire, and the simple habitation of 
his ancestors : land and sea must forsooth be 
ransacked to satisfy his pride ; the most scarce 
furs must be fetched from the very pole, and 
the most costly tissues from the equator; he 
consumed at a meal the tribute of a city, and 
in the expenses of a single day the revenue of 
a province. He became invested with an ar- 
my of women, eunuchs, and courtiers. He 
was told that the virtue of kings consisted in 
liberality; and the munificence and treasures 
of the people were accordingly delivered in- 
to the hands of insidious sycophants and pa- 
rasites. In imitation of the master, the slaves 
were also desirous of having magnificent hou- 
ses, furniture of exquisite workmanship, car- 
pets richly embroidered, and vessels of gold 
and silver for the very lowest and vilest of 
uses ; and hence, all the wealth of the empire 
was squandered and absorbed in the Serai. 

44 To satisfy the cravings of this unbounded 
luxury, the slaves and the women sold their in- 
fluence ; and venality introduced a general 
state of depravity. They sold the favour of 
the prince to the Visier, and the Visier sold 



BY THE ANCIENTS, &C. 9l 

the empire. They sold the law to the Cadi, 
and the Cadi became a seller of justice. They 
sold the altar to the priest, and the priest sold 
heaven itself. And, as every thing was ob- 
tainable by gold, nothing was left unpractised 
to obtain gold. For the sake of this, friend 
betrayed friend; the child his father; the 
servant his master ; the wife her honour ; the 
merchant his conscience ; and there no long- 
er existed in the state any vestige of good 
faith, moral virtue, harmony, or strength. 

" The Pacha, who paid the rents or finan- 
ces of his office to the government of his pro- 
vince, farmed it out for a stipulated revenue, 
and exercised upon it every species of extor- 
tion. He sold, in his turn, the collection of 
the taxes, the command of the troops, and the 
superintendency of the villages : and, as every 
employment was only of a fugitive and tempo- 
rary nature, rapine, propagated from rank to 
rank, was rapid and precipitate in its pro- 
gress. The exciseman harassed the mer- 
chant by his enormous exactions, and trade 
was crushed and annihilated. The Aga pil- 
laged the husbandman, and cultivation de- 
clined. The labourer, robbed of his little 
capital, was effectually disabled from sowing 
his field : taxes, nevertheless, became due, and: 
he was destitute of the means wherewith to 
pay them ; he was threatened with the cor- 
poral punishment of the Bastinado, and driven 
to the expedient of a loan : specie, for want 
of security, was secreted and withheld from 
circulation ; the interest of money became pro- 



92 LESSONS, TAUGHT 

digiously exorbitant, and the usury of the rich 
aggravated the misery of the labouring class. 

" The accidental inclemency of the seasons 
and excessive droughts had foiled their in- 
dustry and rendered the harvests abortive; 
but government would neither forego nor 
postpone its demands. Their distress in the 
villages grew hourly more and more formida- 
ble: a part of the inhabitants took refuge in 
the larger towns or cities; the burthen upon 
those that remained became greater; their 
ruin was consequently expedited, and the 
country speedily depopulated. 

" At length driven to the last extremity by 
tyranny and outrage, certain villages revolted 
and broke out into open rebellion. The Pa- 
cha, so far from considering this as a subject 
of regret, made it a source of self-congratula- 
tion. Uoder this impression, he made war 
upon them, took their houses by storm, plun- 
dered them of the whole of their household 
and moveable property, and stript them of 
their cattle. And, after he had thus reduced 
their land to a desert waste, he exclaimed t 
" What care I ; I shall be removed to-morrow" 

" Hence the country, destitute of hands to 
superintend and cultivate it, was abandoned 
to itself: and periodical rains, or torrents that 
occasionally burst and overflowed their banks, 
settled into fens and swamps. The exhala- 
tions from these, in so warm a climate, gave 
rise to epidemical and putrid diseases, and to 
a multiplicity of other morbid complaints, 
which were followed by a superaddition of 
penury, depopulation, and ruin, that filled up 



BY THE ANCIENTS, &C. 93 

the measure of their calamities even beyond 
the brim. 

" But, alas ! who can enumerate all the 
evils of this tyrannical system of government ! 

" Sometimes the Pachas make war against 
each other, and, to avenge their personal 
quarrels, provinces, which form a part of the 
same identical state, are laid waste. Some- 
times, dreading their masters, they aim at in- 
dependence, and draw upon their innocent 
subjects the chastisement due to their own re- 
volt. Sometimes, fearful of those very sub- 
jects, they subsidize and take into their com- 
mission foreign troops, and, in order to make 
them steady to their interest, they indulge 
them in every species of licentiousness and 
robbery. In one place, they commence an 
action against a rich man, and plunder him 
upon false pretences. In another, they su- 
born witnesses, and lay them under a contri- 
bution for an offence that was never commit- 
ted. Every where they excite the hatred of 
sects one against another, and encourage 
their informations, in order to filch out of 
them, by dint of authority, penal fines or ava~ 
nias. They extort from persons their proper- 
ty; inflict corporal punishment upon them; 
and, when their injudicious avarice has amass- 
ed into one heap the collective riches of a 
whole province, the supreme government, 
with the most diabolical perfidy, feigning to 
avenge the oppressed inhabitants, seizes, on 
its own behalf, the spoil of the people in the 
spoil of the culprit, and wantonly sheds blood 



94 LESSONS, TAUGHT 

for the pretended expiation of a crime, of 
which it was itself the accomplice. 

" O ye iniquitous fiends, be ye sovereigns 
or ministers, who sport with the lives and pro- 
perty of the people ! Is it you, who gave the 
breath of life to man, in order to take it away 
from him ? Is it you, who fertilize the earth, 
in order to squander away the abundance of 
its produce? Do you fatigue your limbs with 
ploughing the field? Do you toil in the heat 
of the sun, and exhaust yourselves with thirst 
in cutting down the harvest, and in thrashing 
the sheaves ? Do you watch, like the shep- 
herd, exposed to the nocturnal dew ? Do you 
traverse the deserts like the indefatigable 
merchant ? Alas ! whenever I have reflected 
on the cruelty and insolence of the powerful, 
my indignation has been roused within me, 
and I have said, in my anger: What! will 
there never appear upon the earth a race of 
men, who shall boldly avenge the cause of the 
people, and punish their tyrants! A mere 
handful of human (t) beasts of prey devour 
the multitude, and the multitude tamely suf- 
fer themselves to be devoured ! O shame ! O 
dastardly and unmanly cowardice! Awake, 
ye degraded people, awake to the recogni- 
tion of your rights ! From you alone all authori- 
ty is derived: to you all power belongs. Vainly 
do kings command you in the name of God and 
of their lance : soldiers obey not the summons. 
Since God supports the Sultan, your aid is su- 
perfluous and useless; since his irresistible 
sword is all-sufficient, he has no need of yours ; 
let us see what he can do of himself. . . . Ima- 



BY THE ANCIENTS, &C. 95 

gine the soldiers to have laid down their arms ; 
and behold the masters of the world as helpless 
and feeble as the meanest of their subjects! 
People ! know then that those who govern 
you, are jour chiefs and not your masters^ your 
delegates and not your proprietors ; that they 
have by right no authority over you, except by 
your own appointment, and for your own advan- 
tage ; that your national wealth is the legiti- 
mate property of nobody but your own selves, 
and that they are personally accountable to 
you for the use and expenditure of it; that 
God has made all men equal, whether kings or 
subjects, and that no human being on earth 
has a right to oppress his fellow-creature. 

" But, this nation and its chiefs disregard 
these sacred truths. . . . Well, well, since they 
will have it so, they will by and bye feel the 
consequences of their own error and fatuity. 
For, their judgment is already passed ; and 
the day is approaching when this colossus of 
power shall fall to pieces, crushed by its own 
weight. Yes, I swear by the ruins of so many 
demolished empires, that the imperial Crescent shall 
undergo the same fate as the states, whose 
mode of government it has imitated ! A foreign 
people shall drive the Sultans from their me- 
tropolis ; the throne of Orkhan shall be subverted ; 
the last branch of his race shall be lopped away ; 
and the horde of the Oguzians (u,) deprived 
of their chief, shall be dispersed like that of 
the JYogaians. In this dissolution, the subjects 
of the empire, freed from the yoke that held 
them together, will resume their ancient dis- 
tinctions, and a general anarchy will ensue, 



96 LESSONS, TAUGHT- 

as happened in the empire of the Sophis (#,) 
till there shall spring up legislators among the 
Arabs, the Armenians, or the Greeks, who 

shall form new states Oh ! were there 

but a sagacious and enterprising race of men 
to be found on the earth, what materials of 
greatness and glory are here ! . . . . But the 
fated hour approaches. The cry of war ac- 
costs my ear, and the catastrophe is about to 
commence. In vain the Sultan draws out his 
opposing armies; his ignorant soldiers are 
defeated and put to the rout. In vain he calls 
upon his subjects; their hearts are calous and 
inflexible ; they very coolly reply : " It is writ- 
ten and decreed ; and what is it to us who is to be 
our master f we cannot possibly lose by the change" 
In vain do the true believers invoke heaven 
and the prophet ; for the prophet is dead, — 
and unpitying heaven, in a commanding tone, 
exclaims : — u Cease to call upon me. Ye are 
yourselves the authors of your calamities ; 
therefore, remedy them yourselves. Nature 
has established laws ; it is your duty to put 
them in practice. Examine, reflect, and pro- 
fit by experience. It is the folly of man that 
works his destruction ; it is his wisdom that 
must save him. The people are blindly igno- 
rant ; let their minds be enlightened by in- 
struction : — their chiefs are depraved ; let 
them reform and new-model their conduct : 
for, thus speaks the decree of nature : — " Since 
the evils that embitter and afflict society, have their 
source in ignorance and avidity, men will never 
cease to be burthened with grievances, until wisdom 
and intellectual improvement shall have illuminated 



WILL THE HUMAN RACE, &C 97 

and enlarged the clouded horizon of their under" 
standings, and they shall have learned to practise 
the art of justice, founded on the knowledge of their 
relative connections, and the genuine laws of their 



own organization. 



CHAP. XIII. 

WILL THE HUMAN RACE EVER BE IN A BETTER 
CONDITION THAN AT PRESENT ? 

Pierced with heartfelt sorrow at the predic- 
tions of the Genius, and deeply impressed 
with the rigorous harshness of his reasoning: 
"Alas!" cried I, bursting into tears, "What 
woes betide you, ye devoted nations ! What 
agonies of thought am I doomed to feel, un- 
happy mortal! Farewell, a long farewell to 
all my ripening hopes ! I now totally despair 
of the felicity of man ! since his afflictions 
have their source in his own heart, since he 
himself alone can apply the remedy, nothing 
but lasting misery awaits his existence ! For, 
who or what can restrain the inordinate de- 
sire of the strong and powerful ? Who shall 
enlighten the ignorant minds of the weak ? 
Who instruct the multitude in the knowledge 
of its rights, and force the chiefs to discharge 
the duties of their station ? What else can we 
see before us but fell misery, gaping upon us 
with open jaws, and ready to swallow up the 
whole human race ! While individual will not 
cease to oppress individual, one nation to at- 
tack another nation, never, no, never will the 



9& WILL THE HUMAN RACE EVER 

day of glory and prosperity again dawn upon 
these countries ! Conquerors will come ; will 
drive away the oppressors, and establish them- 
selves in their place ; but, succeeding to their 
power, they will also succeed to their rapaci- 
ty, and the earth will have changed its ty- 
rants, without changing the proportion of ty- 
ranny." 

Then, turning towards the Genius, and ad- 
dressing him : "Despair," said I, " heart-rend- 
ing despair racks my very soul, and preys up- 
on my vitals. When I meditate on the pros- 
pects you have opened to me relative to the 
nature of man, — the depravity of those who go- 
vern, and the degradation of those who are go- 
verned, make me weary and disgusted of life ; 
and, since there is no alternative but to be eU 
ther the accomplice or the victim of oppres- 
sion, what is there left for the virtuous man to 
do, but to mix his ashes with those of the 
dead?" 

The Genius, fixing upon me an awe-inspir- 
ing look of severity, tinged with compassion, 
continued expressively silent ; and, after a so- 
lemn pause, replied : — " It is then in dying, 
forsooth, that virtue consists ! And so the 
base and evil-intentioned demon of society is 
to be indefatigable and unmolested in the 
prosecution of his criminal projects, and the 
man of integrity and virtue is to shrink at the 
shadow of the first obstacle that stands in the 
way of his duty, or that thwarts his plans of 
doing good ! . . . . Such, however, is the na- 
ture of the human heart: it is elated and in- 
toxicated even to a pitch of presumption by 



BE IN A BETTER CONDITION ? &C. 99 

success, and, in an equal degree, dispirited 
and dejected by disappointment. Always 
wedded to the sensation of the moment, it is 
guided in its judgments, not by the nature of 
things, but by the extemporary impulse of pas- 
sion .... Thou disconsolate mortal, who thus 
despairest of the human race, say, upon what 
profound calculation, upon what induction of 
facts or chain of reasoning, hast thou built thy 
gloomy speculations? Hast thou investigated 
the organization of the sensible power, so as 
to determine with precision, whether the at- 
tractive force, by which it is made to gravi- 
tate towards happiness, be naturally weaker 
than the repulsive force, by which it is made 
to recede from it; or rather, intellectually 
grasping, at one view, the general history of 
the species, and judging of the future by the 
example of the past, hast thou been able to 
ascertain that all further advancement or pro- 
ficiency is impossible? Have societies, let me 
ask, never since their origin made any step 
towards instruction and a better state of 
things? Are men still tenants of the woods, 
destitute of every thing, and buried in the 
most abject ignorance and ferocious stupidi- 
ty ? Are there no nations that have progress- 
ed in improvement beyond the period, when 
nothing was to be seen upon the face of the 
globe but savage freebooters or savage slaves? 
If individuals have, at certain times and in 
certain places, promoted and meliorated their 
condition, why should not the whole race do 
the same? If particular societies have attain- 
ed to a very exalted degree of perfection. 



100 WILL THE HUMAN RACE EVER 

why should not the general progress of society 
at large advance ? And, if the first obstacles 
have been overcome, why should succeeding 
ones be insurmountable? 

" But, thy imagination is haunted with the 
ghostly conceit, that the human race is dege- 
nerating. Guard thyself, I beseech thee, 
against the illusion and paradoxes of the mis- 
anthropist. Man, discontented with the pre- 
sent, attributes to the past a perfection which 
has no existence but in the gaudy dreams of 
his own fancy, and which he employs, as a 
kind of specious colouring, to mask and shade 
his own chagrin. He praises the dead out of 
hatred to the living, and chastises the chil- 
dren with the bones of their fathers. 

" To establish the chimerical notion of a 
retrogressive perfection, we should have to 
give the lie to the testimony of facts and rea- 
son. Nor is this all; for, supposing the facts, 
founded upon history, to be disputable or 
equivocal, we should have to falsify and dis- 
prove the living fact of the nature and orga- 
nization of man; we should have to demon- 
strate, that he is born with a complete scientific 
use of his senses ; that, antecedent to experi- 
ence, he is capable of distinguishing poison 
from wholesome aliment ; that the sagacity of 
the infant is greater than that of the aged and 
grey-headed veteran in life; that the blind 
can both walk and knows the way better, than 
one who is possessed of the greatest acute- 
ness of vision: that man, in a state of civiliza- 
tion, enjoys a less share of happiness than the 
most unpolished and barbarous cannibal; in 



BE IN A BETTER CONDITION? &C. 101 

a word, that there is no such thing existing as 
a progressive scale of experience and instruc- 
tion. 

" Young man, the venerable tombs and mo- 
numents bespeak thy most serious attention : 
listen to the incorruptible and disinterested 
voice of their testimony, and believe. Now, 
there are countries bevond doubt, which have 
declined and fallen off from what they were 
at certain ceras : but, if the understanding 
would be at the pains to analyse and tho- 
roughly examine into the wisdom and felicity 
of their inhabitants at those periods, their glo- 
ry would be found to have more of show than 
reality ; it would be seen, that even in the 
most celebrated of the states of antiquity, 
there existed enormous vices and cruel abu- 
ses, which were the efficient causes of their 
frailty and instability ; that, in general, their 
principles of government were really atro- 
cious ; that there raged betwixt people and 
people audacious robberies, barbarous wars, 
and implacable animosities ; (w) that natural 
right was a thing, respecting which they were 
profoundly ignorant ; that morality was per- 
verted by senseless fanaticism and deplora- 
ble superstition ; that a dream, a vision, or arr 
oracle, were perpetually occasioning the most 
terrible and extensive commotions. Nor are 
nations, perhaps, yet radically cured of the 
whole of these maladies ; but the virulence of 
their symptoms has, at least, abated, and the 
practical experience of past times has not 
been wholly lost upon posterity. Within the 
three last centuries especially, the sphere oif 

i 2 



102 WILL THE HUMAN RACE EVER 

knowledge has been greatly enlarging both iu 
lustre and extent; civilization, aided by a 
happy concurrence of circumstances, has per- 
ceptibly advanced, and even inconveniences 
and abuses of a most unpropitious aspect, 
have proved advantageous to it: for, if con- 
quests have extended kingdoms and states 
beyond due bounds, the people of different 
countries, uniting under the same yoke, have 
lost that selfish spirit of nationality, that es- 
trangement and separation of interests, which 
made them enemies one to another. If the 
power has been concentrated in fewer hands, 
there has been an additional degree of sys- 
tem and harmony in the exercise of it. If 
wars have become more immense in the gross, 
they have been less murderous and destruc- 
tive in detail. If the people have carried to 
the combat less personality and energy, their 
struggles have not been so sanguinary and 
desperate. If they have been less free, they 
have been less turbulent; if more effeminate, 
they have been more pacific. Even despot- 
ism itself has turned to their account: for, if 
governments have been more absolute, they 
have not been so disorderly and tempestuous; 
if thrones have been held as hereditary pro- 
perty, they have excited less dissention, and 
exposed ihe people to fewer convulsions ; in 
fine, if despots, by their jealous and mysteri- 
rious policy, have precluded all knowledge of 
their administration, and all personal and am- 
bitious rivalship for the official direction of 
affairs, the passions of mankind, shut out from 
the scene of politics, have expended their at- 



BE IN A BETTER CONDITION? &C. 103 

tendon on natural science and the arts. Hence 
the sphere of ideas of every description has 
been enlarged; and man, by devoting his 
mind to abstract studies, has understood and 
perceived, with much greater accuracy, his 
place in the system of nature, and his social 
relations. Hence, principles have been more 
fully discussed, the main points more correct- 
ly defined, knowledge has become more wide- 
ly diffused, individuals better informed, man- 
ners more affable, and life itself enhanced by 
greater suavity and benevolence : and hence 
the species, upon the whole, especially in cer- 
tain countries, has been evidently a gainer. 
Nor can this thriving spirit of improvement 
fail to proceed, since the two principal ob- 
stacles, which have hitherto rendered it so 
slow and frequently retrogressive, namely, the 
difficulty of transmitting ideas from age to 
age, and of communicating them expeditious- 
ly from man to man, have been at length com- 
pletely removed. 

" Now, among the people of remote anti- 
quity, every canton and every city, by the dif- 
ference of its language, stood unconnected and 
aloof from the rest, and the consequences re- 
sulting from thence became peculiarly favour- 
able to ignorance and anarchy. Thus, there 
w T as no communication or interchange of ideas, 
no participation of discoveries, no harmony of 
interests or of wishes, no unity of action or of 
conduct. Besides, as they had no other means 
of diffusing and transmitting their ideas, but 
either orally by speech, which was fugitive in its 
nature and limited in its extent, or by manuscripts. 



104 WILL THE HUMAN RACE EVER 

which were necessarly slow of execution, expensive, 
and, from their rarity, within the reach of very 
few, there lay, of course, immense obstacles 
in the way of instruction for the time being, — 
experience became lost from one generation 
to another, — every thing was in a constant 
state of fluctuation, — knowledge, instead of 
advancing, took a contrary course,— and no- 
thing was to be seen but a perpetual succes- 
sion of blind confusion and childhood. 

" On the contrary, in the modern world, 
and particularly in Europe, from great nations 
having allied themselves by a kindred of lan- 
guage, opinions became common among large 
bodies of men; their minds approached within 
a nearer point of contact ; their hearts warm- 
ed and expanded ; their feelings '..and ideas 
vibrated in mutual harmony; and a conso- 
nance in thinking begot a unison of action. 
At length, that sublime invention, that immortal 
gift of genius, the art of printing, furnished a 
means of propagating thought, and of convey- 
ing at one and the same instant any idea to 
millions of the species, and of giving it that 
permanence and durability, which all the pow- 
er of tyrants has neither been able to suspend 
nor abolish. Hence the understanding, by 
the great influx of instruction, has been pro- 
gressively enlarging its boundary, and the in- 
tellectual atmosphere been growing bright- 
er by the continual accession of light, so as 
now to afford a solid assurance of the future 
advancement of our condition. And indeed 
this advancement of our condition is no more 
than the necessary effect of the laws of na» 



BE IN A BETTER CONDITION ? &C. 105 

lure; for, by the law of sensibility, man has the 
same invincible tendency to make himself hap- 
py, as \he flame has to ascend, the stone to gravi- 
tate, or the water to gain its level. The obsta- 
cle in his way is his ignorance, which misleads 
him as to the means to be employed, and be- 
trays him into a false judgment of effects and 
their causes. But, by dint of experience, he 
will become enlightened ; by the lamp of his 
own errors he will conduct himself into the 
right path; and will become wise and good, 
because it is his interest to be so. Ideas will 
spread their electric influence through na- 
tions ; different classes of people will be in- 
structed ; and science will become universal- 
ly familiar and popular. By this means all 
ranks in society will become acquainted with 
the fundamental principles of individual hap- 
piness and of public felicity; they will under- 
stand what are their respective relations, 
their rights, and their duties in the social sys- 
tem ; and will no longer be the dupes of their 
own craving and selfish desires. They will 
perceive that morality is a branch of the science 
of physics, composed, it is true, of elements 
complicated in their operation, but simple 
and invariable in their nature, as being no 
other than the elements of human organization 
itself. They will feel the necessity of being 
moderate and just, because it is the advantage 
and security of each to be so; they will dis- 
cover, that to covet any enjoyment at another 
man's expense, is a false notion founded on 
the calculations of ignorance, because from 
this naturally result reprisals, enmity, and re- 



106 WILL THE HUMAN RACE EVER 

venge; and they will learn that dishonesty is 
therefore the constant effect of folly. 

" Thus, individuals will find, that personal 
happiness is inseparably linked with the hap- 
piness of society : 

" The weak, that instead of dividing their 
interests, they ought mutually to unite, be- 
cause equality constitutes their strength : 

" The rich, that the quantity or extent of 
enjoyment is limited by the constitution of the 
human organs, and that lassitude follows sa- 
tiety : 

" The poor, that the highest degree of hap- 
piness consists in equanimity and peace of 
mind, combined with the due employment of 
time. 

" And public opinion, reaching kings on 
their thrones, will oblige them to keep them- 
selves within the bounds of a regular autho- 
rity : 

" Even chance itself will aid the cause of 
nations, and give them, sometimes, chiefs of 
no capacity, who, through honest weakness, 
will voluntarily suffer them to become free ; 
and, sometimes, enlightened chiefs, who will 
have the virtue to emancipate them. And, 
when there shall exist on the earth great na- 
tional individuals, commonwealths of free and 
enlightened people, the species at large will 
undergo the same change and modification 
with the elements, of which it is composed. 
Knowledge will gradually spread and commu- 
nicate from one portion of society to another, 
till it shall finally pervade and illuminate the 
whole. By the law of imitation, the leading 



BE IN A BETTER CONDITION ? &C. 1 07 

example of one people will be followed by 
others, who will adopt its spirit and its laws. 
Despots themselves, perceiving that they can 
no longer maintain their power without jus- 
tice and benificence, will be urged, both from 
necessity and rivalship, to soften the rigour of 
their governments, and thus civilization will 
become universally predominant. 

" Betwixt one nation and another, an equal 
balance of power will be established, which, by 
obliging them to pay a proper deference to 
the limits of their reciprocal rights, will put 
an end to the barbarous practice of war, and 
compel them to submit the decision of their dis- 
putes to civil arbitration (#;) and the whole spe- 
cies will thus become one aggregate society, 
one and the same family, governed by the 
same spirit and the same laws, and partici- 
pating all the felicity, of which human nature 
is susceptible. 

" This great work will doubtless be long in 
accomplishing, because it is necessary that 
the same impulsive motion should be commu- 
nicated to the various parts of an immense 
body ; that the same leaven should assimilate 
an enormous mass of heterogenus elements : 
but this impulsive motion, will, notwithstand- 
ing, go on, until it has finally produced its ef- 
fect. * Already society at large, having passed 
through the same periodical stages as particu- 
lar societies have done, indicates a similar ten- 
dency towards similar results. At first the 
social body, being in a state of total dissolu- 
tion in all its constituent parts, remained for 
a long time without cohesion in its members ; 



108 WILL THE HUMAN RACE EVER ? &C. 

and this crisis of popular disunion constituted 
its first age of anarchy and childhood. Divided 
afterwards into sections of irregular size, as 
accident or chance directed, under the name 
of states and kingdoms, it experienced the fa- 
tal effects which result from extreme inequa- 
lity of rank and fortune; and the aristocracy of 
great empires formed its second age. At length, 
these privileged and dignified personages disput- 
ed with each other for pre-eminence and su- 
periority, and this was the stage or period of in- 
trigue and contending factions. And, now the 
parties, tired of their dissentions, and feeling 
the want of laws, sigh for the arrival of a pe- 
riod of order and tranquility. Let but a vir- 
tuous chief arise, & powerful and just people ap- 
pear, and the earth will beckon them to su- 
preme dominion. The world looks forward 
with anxiety for a legislative people ; its wishes, 
its prayers call aloud for such a people, and 
my heart hears its voice. . . . Then, turning to 
the westward ; yes, yes, continued he, a shrill 
kind of sound already vibrates in my ear ; the 
cry of liberty, uttered on the distant shores of 
the Atlantic, has reached the old continent. 
At this cry, a secret murmur against oppres- 
sion begins to manifest itself in a powerful na- 
tion ; it feels a salutary alarm for its situation ; 
it enquires what it is, and what it ought 6b be ; 
it examines into its rights, its resources, and 
what has been the conduct of its chiefs .... 
Yet, but one day, but one reflection more .... 
and an immense agitation will arise, a new r age 
will burst forth into existence, an age of asto- 
nishment to vulgar minds, of surprise and 



GRAND OBSTACLE, &C. ] 09 

dread to tyrants, of emancipation to a great 
people, and of hope to the whole world." 



CHAP. XIV. 

GRAND OBSTACLE TO IMPROVEMENT. 

The Genius paused. — My mind, however, 
still prepossessed and surcharged with gloomy 
forebodings, remained a rebel to persuasion; 
but fearful of offending him by a contrariety 
of sentiment, I made no reply. After a short 
interval, turning towards me and fixing on me 
a look that pierced my very soul; " Thou art 
silent," said he, " and yet thy heart is agitat- 
ed with thoughts, to which it dares not give ut- 
terance!" Trembling with confusion and em- 
barrassment: — "O Genius !" said I, " pardon 
my weakness: doubtless, nothing but truth it- 
self can proceed from your lips; but your ce- 
lestial intelligence can distinguish all its nicest 
tints, where my gross faculties are incapable 
of discerning any thing but clouds and shades. 
Yet still I must ingenuously acknowledge, that 
conviction is very far from having taken root 
in my heart, and I was fearfully apprehensive, 
lest perchance my doubts might give you of- 
fence." 

" And what is doubt" replied he, « that it 
should be regarded as a crime ? Has man the 
power of feeling or thinking contrary to the 
impressions that are made upon him ? If a truth 
be palpable, and of practical importance, let 
us pity the man who is ignorant of it: for, his 

K 



ISO GRAND OBSTACLE 

blindness is a sufficient punishment to him. 
If it be doubtful and equivocal, how is he to 
find in it a character or property, which it does 
not possess ? To believe without evidence and 
demonstration is an act of downright igno- 
rance and folly. The man of credulity in- 
volves and bewilders himself in an inextrica- 
ble labyrinth of contradictions and impossibi- 
lities ; the man of sense, from a sincere love 
of truth, dispassionately examines and discus- 
ses every question, that he may be rationally 
correct and consistent in his verdict or opi- 
nions ; he can endure contradiction with the 
most patient good nature, because it is from 
the collision of opposite ideas alone, that the 
light of evidence is produced. Violence and 
compulsion are the argumentative implements 
of falsehood; and, to impose a creed or faith 
authoritatively, is an arbitrary mode of pro- 
ceeding, characteristic only of a tyrant." (?/) 

Emboldened by these sentiments; — " Well," 
said I, addressing the Genius, " since my rea- 
son is free, in vain does it strive to welcome 
the flattering hope, with which you would 
console me. A mind, glowing with virtue and 
sensibility, is prone enough to be hurried away 
by dreams of fancied happiness; but a cruel 
reality incessantly dissolves the enchanting 
vision, and recalls its attention to suffering and 
wretchedness. The more I meditate on the 
nature of man, the more I scrutinize into the 
present state of society, the less appearance 
do I see of the possibility of a world of wis- 
dom and felicity ever being realized. On 
surveying the whole face of our hemisphere. 



TO IMPROVEMENT. Ill 

no where can I perceive any symptom or like- 
ly prospect of a happy revolution. All Asia 
is buried in the most profound darkness. The 
Chinese, governed by an insolent despotism, (2,) 
by strokes of ike bamboo, and the ominous appear- 
ance offish or counters, crippled by the immu- 
tability of their ceremonial and fashionable 
code, and by the radical impediments in their 
language so lamely represented by the cha- 
racters made use of, offer nothing to my view 
in their untimely and abortive civilization, 
but a mere race of automata. The oriental 
Indian, fettered by a load of prejudices, and 
pinioned down by the inviolable and sacred 
ties of their casts, vegetates in an incurable 
apathy. The Tartar, whether wandering or 
fixed, continues the same ignorant and fero- 
cious being, and lives in the very barbarism 
of his ancestors. The Arab, though endow- 
ed with a happy genius, loses his national 
strength, and the fruit of his domestic virtues, 
in the anarchy of his tribes, and the jealousy 
of his families. The African, degraded from 
the state of man, seems irrevocably devoted 
to servitude. In the North, 1 see nothing but 
base serfs, but cattle-like people, the mere play- 
things of their grand proprietors. Ignorance, 
tyranny, and wretchedness have every where- 
thrown nations into a morbid state of paraly- 
tic stupor; and vicious habits, by depraving 
the natural senses, have even destroyed the 
very instinct of happiness and of truth. In 
some countries of Europe, indeed, reason be- 
gins to expand and to recover its natural elas- 
ticity; but even there, can it be said, that the 



112 GRAND OBSTACLE 

knowledge of individual minds is common to 
those nations at large ? Has the policy of their 
governments been turned to the advantage of 
the people? And, are not these, who call 
themselves polished, the \erj people, that, for 
the three last centuries, have filled the earth 
with their injustice ? Are they not those, who, 
under the pretext of commerce, have laid In- 
dia waste, dispeopled a new continent, and 
who, at present, subject Africa to the most 
inhuman slavery? Can the birth of liberty be 
looked for in the bosom of tyrants? And can 
pure justice be adminstered by the impure 
hands of rapacity and insatiate avarice ?— O 
Genius! Whenever I have carried my obser- 
vations into civilized countries, their illusive 
wisdom has vanished from my sight. There 
have 1 seen riches accumulated in the hands 
of a few individuals, and the majority of the 
nation poor and destitute. There have I seen 
all right and power concentered in certain 
classes, and the mass of the people passive 
and precariously dependent. I have seen too 
the houses or individual families of princes, but 
no general family or conwioniuealth of nations : I 
have seen the interests of government, but no 
public interest, or public spirit. I have seen, 
that the whole science of those, who com- 
mand, consisted in oppressing prudently ; and 
the refined servitude of polished nations, on 
that account, only appeared to me the more 
incurable. 

" With one obstacle, in particular, my mind 
was very sensibly struck. In taking a gene- 
ral survey of the globe, f perceived that it was 



TO IMPROVEMENT. 1 1 3 

divided into twenty different systems of reli- 
gious worship: that each nation had receiv- 
ed, or formed for itself a different doctrine, 
and, by exclusively engrossing the truth to it- 
self, imagined every other to be in error. But 
if, as is the fact, in this disparity of opinion, 
the majority deceive themselves, and that too 
from the purest motives of sincerity, it fol- 
lows that the human mind as readily imbibes 
falsehood as truth ; and, in that case, how is it 
to be enlightened ? How are the darling pre- 
judices, that have early taken root in the 
mind, to be extirpated and weeded out? 
How is the bandage, which blindfolds the in- 
tellectual eye, to be removed, when the first 
article in every creed, the first dogma of eve- 
ry religion, is the absolute proscription of doubt \ 
the interdiction of examination, and the abjuration 
of the right of private judgment f What step is 
truth to take in order to make herself known? 
If she offer herself with the credentials of de- 
monstrative proof, pusillanimous man protests 
against his conscience, and refuses to admit 
its evidence (a 2.) If she appeal to divine au- 
thority, being already prepossessed to the 
contrary, he pleads a rival authority of a simi- 
lar kind in favour of his own tenets, and treats 
all innovation as blasphemy. Thus man, by 
his determined blindness, rivets the chains of 
his captivity upon himself, and voluntarily 
barters away the freedom of his own reason, in 
order to become the sport of his own ig;io- 
ra*ice and passions, and to remain for ever 
prescinded from the power of remonstrance 
or resistance. To extricate the mind Irons 

k2 



114 GRAND OBSTACLE, &C. 

the prejudices with which it is inoculated, 
and from the bondage, which it has thus pas- 
sively imposed upon itself, would require no- 
thing less than a miraculous concurrence of 
the most fortunate circumstances. It would 
be necessary, that a whole nation, cured of 
the delirium of superstition, should be no long- 
er wedded, or in any shape accessible to the 
impressions of fanaticism ; that, freed from the 
yoke of a false doctrine, it should voluntarily 
embrace the genuine system of morality and 
reason ; that it should have the firmness to 
become at once bold and prudent, wise and do- 
cile ; that every individual, being made ac-i 
quainted with his rights, should have the re- 
solution and integrity not to transgress the li- 
mits of his duty; that the poor should know 
how to resist seduction, and the rich the al- 
lurements of avarice; that there should be 
found upright and disinterested chiefs : that 
tyrants should be seized with a spirit of mad- 
ness and frenzy ; that the people, recovering 
their powers, should be fully apprized of their 
inability to exercise them, and consent to ap- 
point delegates ; that having the creation of 
their magistrates, they should know how both 
to judge and to respect them; that, in the 
sudden renovation and reform of a whole na- 
tion living upon abuses, each individual, on 
being hastily weaned from his former habits, 
should suffer with patient fortitude the pain- 
ful privations and self denials connected with 
the rapid change; in fine, that the nation 
should have the resolution to conquer its li- 
berty, the wisdom to secure it, the power to 



NEW AGE. 115 

defend it, and the generosity to share it with 
distributive impartiality. But, can sober rea- 
son look forward with any feasible expecta- 
tion to such an extraordinary combination of 
circumstances? Or, should the die of fortune, 
in the infinite variety of chances, happen to 
produce this very contingency, is it likely, 
that I should ever live to see that day ? And, 
will not this mortal frame, long before that, 
have mouldered away in the grave ?" 

Here my heart, convulsed with grief, depri- 
ved my tongue of utterance .... The Genius 
made no reply ; — but, J heard him say to him- 
self in a low tone of voice : " Let us revive 
the hopes of this man : for, if he, who sincere- 
ly loves his fellow-creatures, be suffered to 
despond, what is to become of the nations at 
large ? The past is, perhaps, but too much 
calculated to discourage. Let us then anti- 
cipate the future; let us disclose the astonish- 
ing age that is about to appear, that virtue, 
seeing in perspective the distant object of its 
wishes, and animated with new vigour, may 
redouble its efforts in hastening its approach.' 9 



CHAP. XV. 

NEW AGE. 

No sooner had the Genius uttered to him- 
self these words, than an immense noise issued 
from the West ; when, directing my attention 
to that quarter, I remarked, at the extremity 
of the Mediterranean, in the country of one of 



116 NEW AGE. 

the European nations, a prodigious movement, 
similar to what exists in the bosom of a large 
city amid the turbulent storm of sedition, 
where innumerable crowds of people, like 
boisterous waves, are driven in tumultuous 
disorder along the streets and public squares, 
My ear, struck with their cries, which ascend- 
ed to the very heavens, distinguished at inter- 
vals, these sentences : 

" What can be the meaning of this novel 
and strange phenomenon ? Whence this cruel 
pest, this latent scourge ? We are a numerous 
people, and yet we are in want of hands ! We 
have an excellent soil, and yet there is a 
scarcity of provisions ! We are active and la- 
borious, and yet we live in indigence ! We 
pay enormous taxes and imposts, and yet we 
are told, that they are insufficient ! We are 
externally at peace, and yet our persons and 
property are not safe even at home ! What 
then, in the name of wonder, can be the se- 
cret enemy, that thus devours us?" 

Several voices, proceeding from the midst 
of the throng, replied aloud : " Erect a stan- 
dard in token of distinction, and let all those, 
who, by their useful labours, contribute to the 
necessary support and maintenance of socie- 
ty, gather round it, and it will not be long be- 
fore ye discover the latent enemy that preys 
upon you." 

And, on the standard being erected, the 
nation found itself all on a sudden divided in- 
to two distinct but disproportionate bodies^ the dis- 
parity betwixt them affording a striking con- 
trast. The one, not to be numbered, and nearly 



SEW AGE. 1 1 7 

constituting the whole, exhibited, in the gene- 
ral poverty of their dress, and in their meagre 
and swarthy complexions, the evident marks 
of toil and indigence ; the other, a petty groupe, 
and no more, arithmetically speaking, than an 
insignificant fraction compared with the for- 
mer, presented, in their rich attire glittering 
with gold and silver, and in their plump and 
ruddy countenances, the general symptoms 
and physiognomy of leisure and fortune. On 
observing these people more attentively, I 
perceived, that the large body was constituted 
of labourers, artisans, tradesmen, in fine, of 
every profession, that can be considered as 
useful to society; and that in the small groupe, 
there were none but bishops, priests, and cler- 
gy of every rank and denomination, officers of 
the revenue, commanders of troops, men with 
badges, armorial equipage, and other marks 
of distinction — in a w r ord, the civil, military, 
and religious agents of government. 

The two bodies, stationed in sight, front to 
front, eyed one another with astonishment, 
when I perceived the feelings of indignation 
and resentment begin to shew themselves in 
the one, and a sort of panic in the other; and 
the large body said to the small one : 

4i Why do ye stand thus apart from us ? Are 
not ye of our number ?" 

" No," replied the other ; " ye are the peo- 
ple ; but, we are quite of a different order: we 
are a dignified and privileged class ; we have 
separate laws, customs, and rights peculiar to 
ourselves/' 



118 NEW AGE. 

People. — -And what species of labour is it, 
that ye have a share in performing in this so- 
ciety of ours ? 

Privileged Class. — None : we are not made 
to labour. 

People. — How then have ye acquired your 
wealth ? 

Privileged Class. — By taking the pains to go- 
vern you. 

People. — To govern us, to be sure! a pretty 
kind of governing truly! We have the toil, and 
you the enjoyment ; we produce, and you spend ; 
wealth flows from the sweat of our brows, and 
you engross it to yourselves, Go, y? dignified 
and privileged who are not of the people, go 
and form a nation apart, and govern your- 
selves, (b 2.) 

Then, deliberating on their novel and criti- 
cal situation, some among the groupe said : — 
" Let us at once join the people, and volun- 
tarily share their burthens and their toils ; for 
they are surely men as well as ourselves." — 
Others, on the contrary, rejoined : — " To mix 
and place ourselves on a level with the com- 
mon people, would be beyond all measure de- 
grading and vilifying. What! are they not 
born to serve us ? and are we not men of a 
totally distinct blood and superior pedigree ?" 
And the civil governors said: the people are 
mild and tractable, and naturally servile; we 
must speak to them in the name of the king 
and the law, and they will shortly return to 
their duty. . . .People! It is the royal toill and 
pleasure of our sovereign lord the King, he 
commands and graciously ordains. ..«--," 



NEW AGE. 119 

People. — The king has do will or pleasure 
of his own, in his political capacity, indepen- 
dent of the safety and welfare of the people ; 
he can neither command nor ordain but ac- 
cording to the sovereign voice of the law, un- 
der which, like ourselves, he is a subject. 

Civil Governors. — The law calls upon you 
for submission. 

People. — The law is the general will ; — and a 
reformation of abuses is our will. 

Civil Governors. — Ye are, in that case, a re- 
bellious people. 

People. — Nations never revolt; tyrants only 
are rebels. 

Civil Governors. — The king is on our side, 
and he enjoins you to submit. 

People. — Kings cannot be separated from 
their respective nations, of which they form a 
constituent part or member. The king of 
ours cannot, of course, be on your side ; ye 
can, therefore, have nothing but his bare sha- 
dow to substantiate your pretensions. 

Then the military governors advanced, and 
said : " The people are timid ; let us threaten 
them ; there is no way of bringing them to 
obedience but by force. . . . Soldiers, chastise 
this insolent rabble /" 

People. — u Soldiers, are not we all of one 
kindred and children of the same national fa- 
mily ? Will you strike your own brethren? — 
If the people be destroyed, who will support 
the army?" 

And the soldiers grounding their arms, said 
to their chiefs : " We too are a part of the 
people ; show us the enemy." 



120 NEW AGE. 

Then the ecclesiastical governors said :-— 
64 There is now but one resource left. The 
people are superstitious; we must awe and 
intimidate them with the names of God and 
of religion." 

Priests, — Our clearly beloved brethren! our faith- 
ful children ! God has specially commissioned 
us to govern you. 

People. — Produce the patent of his com- 
mission. 

Priests. — Ye must have faith ,; reason bewil- 
ders and leads men astray. 

People. — And would you govern without re- 
course to reason ? 

Priests. — God is the God of peace ; — reli- 
gion enjoins you to obey. 

People. — Peace naturally supposes justice ; 
— and obedience implies the observance of an 
acknowledged and pre-existent law. 

Priests. — Men are only sent into this world 
for trial and suffering. 

People. — Show us then- the example by suf- 
fering yourselves. 

Priests. — Would you live without Gods or 
kings ? 

People. — We wish to live without tyrants. 

Priests. — Ye cannot do without mediators to 
intercede and act in your behalf. 

People. — Ye mediators with God, and with 
kings T Ye Courtiers and Priests ! your services 
are too expensive; — henceforth we mean to 
take the management of our affairs into our 
own hands. 

Then the small groupe exclaimed :• — " We 
are lost, it is all over with us ; the people is en- 
lightened" 



A FREE AND LEGISLATIVE PEOPLE. 121 

And the people replied : ;; No, no, by being 
lost, ye are saved ; for, since we are enlight- 
ened, our power shall not be abused : — our 
desires extend not beyond our just rights. — 
Resentment it were impossible not to feel, but 
we shall now bury it in the grave of oblivion : 
— we were slaves, — we can now command ; 
but, our will is only to be free, and, by willing 
it, we are so." 



CHAP. XVI. 

A FREE AND LEGISLATIVE PEOPLE. 

I xow began to reflect with myself, that all 
public authority was suspended and at a 
stand, that the old government, to which the 
people were habituated, was annihilated, and 
I shuddered at the thought of their falling in- 
to the dissolution of anarchy. But the imme- 
diate promptitude, with which they entered 
into a discussion of the nature of their situa- 
tion, quickly dispelled my apprehensions. 

" It is not enough," said they, w to have 
emancipated ourselves from parasites and ty- 
rants, we must guard against the resuscitation 
and revival of their power. We are but men. 
end we know, by dear-bought experience, 
that the wishes of every one of us, by the very 
polarity of our nature and passions, incessant- 
ly point towards authority and self-enjoyment 
at the expense of others. It is, therefore, ne- 
cessary to provide beforehand against this 
universal propensity, which is the occasion of 



122 A FREE AND LEGISLATIVE PEOPLE. 

so much discord, and to establish certain rules, 
by which our conduct may be regulated, and 
our rights determined. But, in the investiga- 
tion of these, abstruse and difficult questions 
are involved, which demand the whole time 
and faculties of every person concerned. 
Now, occupied as we necessarily are, in our 
respective callings, we have not sufficient lei- 
sure to bestow upon these studies; and even 
provided we had, we are not competent of 
ourselves to the exercise of such functions. 
Let us, therefore, select from among ourselves 
persons properly qualified for the task, who 
shall make it their entire business. Let us 
delegate the powers which we hold in common, 
to them, in order that they may frame for us a 
system of government and laws; let us make 
them the representatives of our interests and our 
luills ; and, that this representation may be as 
perfect as possible, let the choice be numerous, 
and let them be citizens taken out of every 
class of society like ourselves, so as to include 
a diversity equivalent to that of our wills and 
our interests." 

The selection being made accordingly, the 
people thus addressed their delegates : — " We 
have hitherto lived in a society fortuitously 
formed without fixed terms of agreement, with- 
out free conventional contracts, without any 
stipulation of rights, without reciprocal en- 
gagements; and a multitude of disorders 
and calamities have been the result of this 
precarious state of things. After maturely 
deliberating on these circumstances, we now r 
resolve to frame a regular compact on a well- 



A FREE AND LEGISLATIVE PEOPLE. 124 

digested model; and we have made choice 
of you to draw up the articles of it. Exa- 
mine, therefore, with care and discreet atten- 
tion, what ought to be its basis and condi- 
tions. Inquire what is the object and princi- 
ples of every association ; observe well what 
are the rights, which every member brings 
along with him into it, the powers he stakes in 
the public concern, and the powers which he 
ought to reserve entire to himself. Point out 
to us equitable laws, and rules of conduct. 
Prepare for us a new system of government; 
for, we are feelingly sensible, that the princi- 
ples, which to this hour have been our guide, 
are radically bad. Our forefathers have wan- 
dered in the paths of ignorance, and we, from 
blind imitation and habit, have trod in their 
steps. Every thing is conducted by violence, 
fraud, and corruption; and the genuine laws 
of morality and reason are still enveloped in 
darkness and obscurity. Shed light, there- 
fore, upon this gloomy chaos; discover to us 
their principles and connective relations, and 
publish the code, and we will conform to it." 

And the people raised an immense throne 
in the form of a pyramid, and, seating upon 
it the men they had chosen, said to them ; 
" We elevate you this day above us, that you 
may take a more comprehensive view of our 
respective relations, and be exalted above 
the influence of our passions. 

" But, remember that you are our co-citi- 
zens and co-equals; that the power, which 
we confer upon you, belongs to us; that we 
confide it to you as a trust or deposit, for 



124 UNIVERSAL BASIS OP ALL 

which you are responsible, but not as personal 
property, or as hereditary right; that you will 
be yourselves the first to submit to the laws 
which you make; that to-morrow you will de- 
scend from your station, and stand again on a 
level with us ; and that you will have acquir- 
ed no right, but the right to our gratitude and 
esteem. And, now only picture to yourselves 
with what tribute of glory and affection the 
universe, which reveres so many apostles of er- 
ror, will honour the first assembly of rational 
?nen, that shall have solemnly proclaimed the 
immutable principles of justice to mankind, 
and consecrated, in the very face of tyrants, 
the rights of nations !" 



CHAP. XVH. 

UNIVERSAL BASIS OF ALL RIGHT AND ALL LAW, 

These men, chosen by the people to investi- 
gate the true principles of morality and rea- 
son, then proceeded to fulfil the sacred ob- 
ject, with which they were charged ; and, af- 
ter a long examination, having discovered an 
universal and fundamental principle, they 
said to their constituents : " We have employ- 
ed our faculties in the investigation you de- 
mand of us, and we conceive the following to 
be the primordial basis and physical origin of all 
justice and of all right. 

" Whatever be the active power, the moving 
cause that directs and governs the universe, this poiv- 
er, having given to all men the same organs, the 



RIGHT AND ALL LAW. 125 

same instinctive sensations, and the same icants, has 
thereby sufficiently declared, that it has also given 
them the same rights to the use of its worldly fa- 
vours ; and that, naturally speaking, cdl men are 
equal. 

" Secondly, inasmuch as this power has 
given to every man the full means of providing 
for his own existence, it clearly follows, that 
it has created all men independent of each oth- 
er and/ree, and that no one can be born or 
made the slave of another, but that all men 
are the unlimited proprietors of their own per- 
sons. 

" Equality, therefore, and liberty, are two cs~ 
smtial properties of man, two laws of the Divini- 
ty, as inseparable from his nature, as irreversible 
and indestructible, as the physical properties of 
the Elements. 

" But, on the ground that every man is the 
absolute master of his own person, it follows, 
that his own free and voluntary consent is an in- 
dispensable condition, that constitutes the 
very essence of every contract and engage- 
ment. 

u And, since every individual is equal to ev- 
ery other individual, it follows, that the ba- 
lance of what is rendered back ought to be 
rigorously in equipoise with what is given; for, 
the idea of equity and of justice is- essentially 
interwoven in the idea of equality* 

* The very words (equipoise, equality, equity,) evidently 
trace out to us this connexion : for, equilibrium, equalitas-, 
equitas, are all of one family or verbal pedigree, and the phy- 
sical idea of equality, in the scales of a balance, is the source 
and type of all the rest. 

l2 



126 UNIVERSAL BASIS OF ALL 

"'Equality and liberty, therefore, constitute 
the physical and unalterable basis of ever}' 
union of men in society, and are, by conse- 
quence, the necessary and generative principle of 
every law and regular system of government. 
(c2.) 

" It is from having acted in a manner dero- 
gatory from this fundamental principle, that 
those political diseases have crept in amongst 
you, as indeed they have done in every other 
nation, which have, at length, awakened and 
excited you to the remedy of open resistance 
and revolt. It is only by returning back and 
new-modelling your conduct conformably with 
this rule, that you can remove abuses and re- 
constitute a happy state of social confedera- 
tion. 

" But, we are in duty bound to suggest ta 
you, that, from this regeneration, you will have 
an extreme shock to endure in your habits* 
your fortunes, and your prejudices. Con- 
tracts of a vicious and injurious tendency 
must be annulled, abusive privileges abolish- 
ed, preposterous and partial distinctions, ille^ 
gitimate and false property of every kind sur- 
rendered ; in one word, you must return for a 
moment into the state of nature. — Now, con- 
sider well, whether your feelings are capable 
of consenting to such immense sacrifices," 

Thus spoke the representatives: — When, 
reflecting on the inherent and greedy passions 
of the human heart, I was just on the verge of 
believing that the people would renounce all 
thoughts of meliorating their condition. But, 
1 was most agreeably mistaken :-— for, instant- 



RIGHT AND ALL LAW. 127 

}y a vast crowd of men thronged towards the 
throne, and solemnly abjured all their riches 
and all their distinctions. — " Unfold to us," cri- 
ed they, " the laws of equality and liberty : we 
disclaim the future possession of every thing, 
that is not held in the sacred name of justice. 

"Equality, liberty, justice — these shall be our 
code hereafter, these shall be the motto, that 
shall grace^our standard." 

And immediately the people raised a flag 
of a most extraordinary size, inscribed with 
these three ivords, and decorated with three 
corresponding colours. This was placed on 
the throne of the legislators, when the sym- 
bol of universal justice was, for the first time, 
seen to wave upon the earth. In front of the 
throne the people built a new altar, on which 
they placed a pair of golden scales, a sword, 
and a book, with this legend : — 

TO E.QJJAL LAW, WHICH JUDGES AiND PROTECTS. 

They then surrounded the throne and altar 
with a vast amphitheatre, and the nation seated 
itself to hear the publication of the law. And 
millions of men, lifting up their hands at the 
same instant towards heaven, took the solemn 
oath — "to live equal, free, and just : to respect the 
rights and property of each other; and to yield obe- 
dience to the law, and to its ministers regularly ap- 
pointed." 

A spectacle like this, so striking, so awfully 
sublime, so interesting and moving to a gene- 
rous heart, melted me at once into tears; and, 
addressing myself to the Genius, " Hence- 
forth let me live," said I ; — " away with des- 
pair ; — be gone despondence : — for, my hopes 



128 CONSTERNATION AND 

are now risen from the dead, and there is no- 
thing in future, which they are not vigilantly 
prepared to expect." 



CHAP. XVIII. 

CONSTERNATION AN!) CONSPIRACY OF TYRANTS. 

Yet, scarcely had the solemn cry of liberty 
and equality resounded on the earth, when 
symptoms of uneasy astonishment and appre- 
hension were visibly excited in different na- 
tions. In one quarter, the multitude, moved 
by the impulse of desire, but indecisively wa- 
vering between hope and fear, between a 
sense of their rights and the habitual sense of 
slavery, betrayed active signs of agitation : in 
another, kings, suddenly roused from the list- 
less yawnings of indolence and despotism, be- 
came feelingly alarmed, and trembled for the 
safety of their thrones : every where those 
classes of civil and religious tyrants, who delude 
princes and oppress the people, were seized 
with rage and consternation ; and, concerting 
together their perfidious plans, they said one to 
another: 4k Woe be to us, should this fatal cry 
of liberty once reach the ear of the multitude, 
and this poisonous spirit of justice be dissemi- 
nated in their minds." And, observing 

the three-coloured flag with its motto waving 
in the air: "What a swarm of evils," cried 
they, " are couched in those three words ! If 
all men be equal, where is our exclusive right 
to honours and power ? If all men are or ought 



CONSPIRACY OF TYRANTS. 129 

to be free, what becomes of our slaves, our vas- 
sals, our patrimony, our claims? If all be equal 
in a civil capacity, where are our privileges 
of birth and hereditary descent, and what be- 
comes of the nobility ? If all be equal before 
God, what occasion will there be for media- 
tors, and what is then to become of the priest- 
hood? Let us therefore join hand and heart, 
and without a moment's delay, destroy this 
hydra of justice, and root out the seeds of this 
noisome liberty, lest, by its rapid growth, it be- 
come too formidable to be extirpated : and 
let no expedients, no arts, be left untried to 
effect our purpose. Let us exasperate and 
sound the alarm in the ears of kings, that they 
may take part and coalesce in our cause. Let 
us divide the people; and, having engaged 
them in war and bloodshed, let us engross 
their attention by battles, conquests, and na- 
tional jealousy. Let us terrify and fill them 
with apprehensions respecting the power of 
this free nation. Let us form a grand league 
against the common enemy. Let us destroy 
this sacrilegious standard, demolish this throne 
of rebellion, and quench these kindling com- 
bustibles in the outset before the revolutiona- 
ry flame spreads into a general conflagration." 
And the civil and religious tyrants of the 
people did actually enter into combination to- 
gether; and having, either by absolute force 
or seduction, gained multitudes over to their 
side, they advanced in an hostile manner 
against the free nation, and surrounding with 
loud cries the altar and the throne of the natural 
law j " What," said they, « is all this new- 



I 30 CONSTERNATION AND 

fangled heretical doctrine, this impious altar, 
this sacrilegious worship? .... Ye true-be- 
lieving and loyal people ! Would it not seem, 
that this very day truth was for the first time 
discovered, and that to this hour ye have 
known nothing else but error ? Would ye not 
suppose these men to be more particularly 
favoured by fortune than yourselves, and to 
have alone the privilege of being wise ? And 
are you, ye dupes of national rebellion, so stupid- 
ly blind, as not to see how basely your chiefs 
are misleading you, and how dreadfully they 
are adulterating the principles of your faith, and 
overturning the religion of your forefathers f Trem- 
ble, ye factious spirits, lest the wrath of hea- 
ven be kindled against you; and hasten by a 
speedy repentance to correct and make atone- 
ment for your past misdeeds." 

But, alike inaccessible to the suggestions of 
persuasion and of terror, the free nation con- 
tinued perfectly mute : and, the whole mass 
appearing all in arms, displayed itself in an 
attitude, at once both striking and formidable. 

And the legislators, addressing themselves 
to the chiefs of nations, said : " If the light, even 
when our eyes were hood-winked, did not fail to 
illuminate our steps, why, since the bandage 
over them is removed, and we enjoy so large 
a field of vision, should we now conceive our- 
selves to be in a total eclipse of darkness ? If 
we, who, in the capacity of leaders, direct 
mankind to exert their faculties and to be- 
come enlightened, deceive and mislead them, 
under what construction is the conduct of 
those to be viewed, who wish only to be the 



CONSPIRACY OF TYRANTS. 131 

leaders of the blind} — Ye chiefs of nations, if 
ye really possess truth, produce it and let us 
see it, and we will receive it with gratitude ; 
for, we pursue it with ambitious ardour, and 
feel personally interested in the discovery of 
it. We are, indeed, but men, and may accor- 
dingly be deceived ; Ye too are but men, and, 
as such, equally fallible with ourselves. Assist 
us then in extricating our minds from this dis- 
mal labyrinth, in which the human species 
has wandered for so many ages, and from the 
illusion of such a multiplicity of prejudices 
and evil habits. Engage with us, amid the 
conflict of contending opinions which are 
struggling with each other for our belief and 
acceptance, in order to trace out the genuine 
and distinctive character of truth. Let one 
day terminate the long and tedious litigations 
of error : let us establish between it and truth 
a solemn competition; and let us invite peo- 
ple of all countries to come forward and give 
their opinions : Let us convoke a general as- 
sembly of nations ; let them personally act as 
judges in their own cause ; and, in canvassing 
the tenets of every separate system, let the 
field of argument be equally open to the dis- 
putants on the side of prejudice and of rea- 
son, that every thing may be said for and 
against each by their respective champions ; 
and, finally, let the evidence resulting from 
this discussion, pave the way for an universal 
barmony of minds and hearts." 



132 GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE 

CHAP. XIX. 

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLE OF ALL NA- 
TIONS. 

Thus spoke the legislators of this free peo- 
ple; when the multitude, animated with that 
sudden and instinctive feeling, which every 
reasonable proposition tends to inspire, shout- 
ed their applause, while the tyrants remained 
alone, unsupported and overwhelmed with 
confusion. 

A scene of a nature at once both novel and 
astonishing then presented itself to my view\ 
All the people and nations of the globe, every 
different race of men from every different 
climate, advancing on all sides, seemed to as- 
semble in one inclosure, and there to form an 
immense congress. The motly appearance of 
this innumerable crowd, distinguishable into 
groupes by their diversity of dress, of features, 
and of complexion, exhibited a most extraor- 
dinary and engaging spectacle. 

On one side, I could distinguish the Euro- 
pean with his short and close habit, his trian- 
gular hat, shaved chin, and powdered hair; 
and, on the opposite side, the Asiatic with a 
flowing robe, a long beard, a shaved head, 
and circular turban. Here I observed the 
inhabitants of Africa, their skin of the colour 
of ebony, their hair woolly, their body girt 
with blue and white cotton cinctures, and 
adorned with bracelets and beads of coral, 
shells, and glass ; there the northern tribes, 
wrapped in their bags of skin; the Laplander 



PEOPLE OF ALL NATIONS. 133 

with his conical bonnet and his snow-shoes ; 
the Samoiede with his body glowing with heat, 
and surrounded with a strong odorous atmos- 
phere ; the Tongouse with his horned bonnet, 
and carrying his idols pendent from his neck; 
the Yakoute with his tatoued skin ; the Calmuc 
with his flattened nose and small goat-like 
eyes. Farther on, were the Chinese, attired 
in silk, with their single tress of hair; the 
Japanese of mingled race ; the Malayans with 
large spreading ears, with a ring in their nose, 
and with an enormous hat of the leaves of the 
p^im-tree (d 2.) ; and the tatoued inhabitants 
of the islands of the ocean and of the conti- 
nent which forms our Antipode.* The dis- 
play of so many varieties of the same species, 
of so many fantastic inventions of the same 
kind of understanding, of so many different 
modifications of the same kind of organization, 
at once gave rise to a thousand sensations 
and a thousand thoughts (e 2.) I viewed with 
astonishment the gradation of colour, from a 
bright carnation to a bright brown, a dark 
brown, a muddy brown, bronze, olive, leaden, 
copper — in fine, even to the black of ebony 
and jet. And, observing the Kachemirean, 
with his rose-coloured cheek, beside the sun- 
burnt Hindoo ; and the Georgian standing by 
the Tartar ; I reflected upon the effects of hot 
and cold climates, of mountainous and low, 
marshy and dry, wooded and open grounds. 
I compared the dwarf of the pole with the gi- 
ant of the temperate zone ; the lank Arab with 

* The country of the Papons, or New Guinea. 

M 



1 34 GENERAL ASSEMBLY OP THE 

the large pot-bellied Hollander ; the short 
squat figure of the Samoiede with the tall and 
well-proportioned form of the Sclavonian and 
the Greek ; the greasy and woolly black hair 
of the JYegro with the silky golden locks of the 
Dane ; the flat-faced Calmuc, with his goat- 
like eyes, and his nose crushed, to the oval 
and projecting visage, the large blue eyes, and 
the aquiline nose of the Circassian and the 
Abyssinian. I contrasted the printed cloths of 
the Indian, the well-wrought manufactures of 
the European, the rich furs of the Siberians, 
with the clothing of savage nations, composed 
of the platted bark of trees, rushes, leaves, 
and feathers, together with the blue figures of 
serpents, stars, and flowers, with which their 
skin is stained. Sometimes, the variegated 
appearance of this multitude, reminded me of 
the enamelled meads of the Nile and the Eu- 
phrates, when, after rains and inundations, 
millions of flowers every Where unfold them- 
selves ; and, sometimes, it brought to my re- 
collection, by its buzzing noise and busy mo- 
tion, the innumerable swarms of locusts, which 
alight in the spring, like a cloud, upon the 
plains of Hauran. 

At the sight of so many living and intelli- 
gent beings, I could not help reflecting on the 
immense multitude of thoughts and sensations 
which were crowded into this space, and on 
the consequent opposition that must prevail 
amid the clash of such a number of different 
opinions, prejudices and passions of men so 
whimsically capricious; and, in this train of 
meditation, my mind was fluctuating in sus= 



PEOPLE OF ALL NATIONS. 135 

pense betwixt astonishment, admiration, and 
fearful apprehension. . . . When the legislators, 
enjoining silence, diverted the current of my 
attention wholly to themselves. 

"Inhabitants of the earth," said they, " a free 
and powerful nation addresses you in the name 
of justice and of peace, and voluntarily offers, as 
a security and pledge of its sincerity, the fruits 
of its experience and conviction. Afflicted 
for a long time with the same grievances as 
yourselves, it at length enquired into their 
origin, and found them to be derived from 
violence and injustice erected into laws 
through the inexperience of past generations, 
and perpetuated by the prejudices of the 
present age. Accordingly, abolishing every 
usurped and arbitrary establishment, and go- 
ing back to the genuine source of reason and 
of right, it perceived that there existed in the 
regular order of the universe, and in the physical 
constitution of man, eternal and immutable 
laws, which only required his observance, in 
order to render him abundantly happy. O 
men ! only open your eyes, and survey the 
heavens that afford you light, and the earth 
that gives you nourishment! Do they not dis- 
pense to all of you the same beneficent gifts ? 
and since the Power that directs their motions 
has bestowed on all of you the self-same life, 
the self-same organs, and the self-same wants, 
has it not also given you the same right to the 
use of its favours? Has it not hereby declar- 
ed you to be all equal and free ? What mortal 
then shall dare refuse to his fellow-creature, 
the benefit of that which is granted him by 



130 GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE 

nature? O ye fellow-nations of the earth ! let 
us banish from us every kind of tyranny, eve- 
ry unsocial cause of dissension; let us form 
one individual society, one grand family; and, 
since all mankind are identified by one species 
of constitution, let there henceforth exist but 
one law, that of nature; but one code, that of 
reason ; but one throne, that of justice ; but one 
altar, that of union" 

Thus spoke the legislators : — when the mul- 
titude rent the very skies with shouts of ap- 
plause ; and, in the midst of this popular trans- 
port, a thousand benedictions were heard, and 
the whole atmosphere resounded with the 
words, equality , justice, union. But different feel- 
ings presently succeeded to this first emotion. 
The chiefs and teachers of the people soon 
after began to excite a spirit of disputation 
among them, when there arose a kind of mur- 
mur, which, spreading from groupe to groupe, 
was converted into clamour, and from cla- 
mour into uproar and disorder of the first 
magnitude : Every nation assuming exclusive 
pretensions, and claiming a preference in fa- 
vour of its own opinions and code. 

" Ye are totally lost in error,'' said the par- 
ties, pointing at each other; "we alone are 
the persons, who are in actual possession 
of reason and truth : ours is the only true law, 
ihe genuine rule of right and of justice, the 
sole means of happiness and perfection ; all 
other men are either intellectually blind, or 
downright rebels in opinion." .... And the 
agitation became extreme . . . 

But the legislators, having proclaimed si- 



PEOPLE OF ALL NATIONS. J ^7 

Ience, thus addressed them : u People," said 
thej, " by what strange emotion, by what hur- 
ricane of passion is it that ye are agitated ? 
What is the meaning of this storm of words, 
of this boisterous affray of yours, and to what 
extremities will ye suffer it to lead you ? What 
advantage do ye expect to derive from all 
this strife and contention ? For ages has the 
earth been a field of litigious altercation, and 
torrents of blood have been shed in order to 
decide the controversies of mankind : and 
what benefit have you reaped from so many 
wars and lamentable contests? When the 
strong has subjected the weak to his opinion, 
has he thereby furthered the cause of evi- 
dence and truth ? O nations ! lei your own 
wisdom be your guide and counsellor! When 
disputes arise between families or individuals, 
what steps do you take to reconcile the par- 
ties ? Do you not appoint arbitrators ?" " Yes, 
yes" exclaimed the multitude with one unani- 
mous voice: "Treat then, the authors of your 
present contrariety of sentiment in a similar 
manner. Command those who call themselves 
your instructors, and who impose on you their 
creed, to discuss in your presence the ground 
and arguments on which it is founded. Since 
they appeal to your interests, know in what 
manner your interests are treated by them. — 
Again, ye chiefs and preceptors of the peo- 
ple, before ye involve and embroil them in the 
verbal warfare and jarring hostilities of your 
rival doctrinesv let the reasons forand against 
your respective opinions be fairly confronted: 
and seriously cavassed. Let us establish '-as 



138 INVESTIGATION OF TRUTH. 

rational and solemn competition, a public in- 
vestigation of truth, not before the tribunal of 
a frail individual or a prejudiced party, but 
before a court composed of the collective in- 
formation and united interests of the species 
at large; and let the natural sense of the whole 
human race be our arbitrator and judge," 



CHAP. XX. 

INVESTIGATION OF TRUTH. 

And the people having shouted their assent, 
the legislators said : " In order that we may 
proceed in this grand work methodically and 
without confusion, let a spacious amphithea- 
tre be formed in the vacant space before the 
altar of -union and of peace; let each system of 
religion and each particular sect erect its 
own appropriate and distinctive standard 
along the circumference; let its chiefs audits 
ministers place themselves around it, and let 
their followers be ranged in succession in one 
and the same line." 

And the amphitheatre being traced out, and 
order proclaimed, an immense number of 
standards of almost every colour and figure 
were instantly raised, analogous to what is 
seen in a commercial port, frequented by a 
hundred nations, when, on public days of fes- 
tivity, thousands of flags and pendants stream 
from a forest of masts. And, at the sight of 
this astonishing diversity, I turned round and 
addressing myself to the Genius : ct I had no 



INVESTIGATION OP TRUTH, 139 

idea," said I, " that the world was divided in- 
to more than at most a score of different sys- 
tems of religion, and even then I despaired of 
a reconciliation of opinions; but, how can 1 
hope for any pacification or coalition of minds, 
when I behold thousands of different parties?" 
—"These, however," replied the Genius, " are 
only a part of what exist; and yet they are 
disposed to be intolerant." . . . 

And, as the groupes advanced to take their 
stations, the Genius began to point out to me 
the symbols and characteristic attributes of 
each, and thus explained to me their mean- 
ing :— 

" That first groupe," said he, " with a green 
standard, on which you see displayed a cre- 
scent, a fillet, and a sabre, is formed of the fol- 
lowers of the Arabian prophet. To assert that 
there is a God (without knowing what he is;) 
to believe in the words of a man (without under- 
standing the language in which he speaks ;) 
to travel into a desert in order to pray to the Deity 
(who is every where ;) to wash the hands with 
water (and not to abstain from bathing them 
in blood;) to fast all day (and to feast in the 
night ;) to give alms of their own property (and 
to plunder the property of their neighbour:) 
such are the means of perfection instituted by 
Mahomet, such the holy watch words and ral- 
lying signals of his true and faithful followers; 
and, whoever refuses to answer to the sacred 
call, is considered as a reprobate, has the aw- 
ful anathema denounced against him, and is 
devoted to the sword. A God of clemency, the 
author of life, has, according to them, institu- 



140 INVESTIGATION OF TRUTH. 

ted these laws of oppression and murder; has 
instituted them for the whole universe, though 
he has condescended to reveal them but to 
one man ; has established them from all eter- 
nity, though they were promulgated and made 
known by him only the other day. These 
laws are sufficient for all the purposes of life, 
and yet a volume is annexed to them ; this 
volume was to diffuse light, to exhibit evi- 
dence, to be the source of perfection and hap- 
piness ; and yet, in the very life- time of the 
prophet, its pages, every where abounding 
with obscure, ambiguous, and contradictory 
pasFages, required elucidation; and the com- 
mentators who undertook to explain and in- 
terpret them, not agreeing in opinion, became 
divided into sects and parties opposite and 
inimical to each other. One maintains that 
Alt is the true successor, and another takes 
the part of Omar and Aboubekre. This denies 
the eternity of the Koran, that the necessity of 
ablutions and prayers. The Carmite pro- 
scribes pilgrimage, and allows the use of wine; 
while the Hakemite preaches the doctrine of 
the transmigration of souls ; — and thus there 
are sects to the number of seventy-two, of 
which you may count the different standards. 
(/2.) In this conflict, each exclusively lay- 
ing claim to infallibility, and stigmatizing the 
rest with heresy and rebellion, has turned 
against them its sanguinary zeal. And this 
religion, which professes to adore a beneficent 
and merciful God, the common parent of the 
whole human race, by being converted into a 
torch of discord and an incentive to war and 



INVESTIGATION OF TRUTH. 141 

carnage, has never ceased for these twelve 
hundred years to deluge the earth with blood, 
and to spread havock and desolation from 
one extremity of the ancient hemisphere to 
the other (g2.) 

"The men you see distinguished by their 
immense white turbans, their large sleeves 
and long rosaries, are the Imam, the Mollas, 
and the Muftis ; and not far from them are 
the Dervises with their pointed bonnets, and 
the Santons with their hair loose and dishevel- 
led. Observe how they utter with vehemence 
their several professions of faith, and are be- 
ginning to dispute respecting the greater and 
lesser ^pollutions ; the matter and form of ablutions; 
the attributes and perfections of God; the 
Chaitan and the good and evil angels; death; 
the resurrection; the interrogatory in the grave; 
the passage over the bridge no broader than a 
hair ; the balance of works ; the pains of hell, 
and the joys of paradise. 

" By the side of these, that still more nume- 
rous groupe, with standards of a white ground 
interspersed with crosses, consists of the wor- 
shippers of Jesus. Acknowledging the same 
God as the Mussulmen, founding their belief 
on the same books, and admitting, like them, 
a first man, who entailed mortality on the 
whole human race by eating an apple, they 
are nevertheless inspired with a holy horror 
against them ; and, out oi piety, these two sects 
mutually treat each other as impious impos- 
tors and blasphemers. The chief point on 
which their dissention hinges, is, that after ad- 
mitting the unity and indivisibility of God, the 



1412 UNVESTIUATIOJN OF TRUTH. 

Christians notwithstanding go on to divide 
him into three distinct persons, making of each 
an entire and complete individual, and yet insist- 
ing at the same time, that these three separate 
individuals make one whole, identical and insepa- 
rable individual : and they further add, that this 
invisible Being, who Jills the universe, assumed 
the visible form of a man, with material, mor- 
tal, and finite faculties or organs, without 
ceasing to be immaterial, immortal, and infi- 
nite. The Mussulmen, on the contrary, not 
able to comprehend these mysteries, though 
they find no sort of difficulty in conceiving the 
eternity of the Koran, and the mission of the 
prophet, condemn them as fabulous absurdi- 
ties, and reject them as the visions of a disor- 
dered brain. And hence results the most im- 
placable enmity betwixt the two. 

" Moreover, the Christian sects, equally di^ 
vided among themselves, are not less nume- 
rous than those of the Mussulman religion ; 
and their bickerings and controversies are 
the more violent, from the objects for which 
they contend being inaccessible to the sen- 
ses, and, of consequence, incapable of de- 
monstration, so that the opinions of each have 
no rule to go by, no foundation to stand upon, 
but their own will or caprice. Thus, agree- 
ing, that God is an incomprehensible and un~ 
known being, they nevertheless dispute re- 
specting his essence, his mode of acting, and 
his attributes. Agreeing, that his tranforma- 
tion, as they suppose, into man is an enigma 
that the human understanding is incapable of 
solving, they dispute respecting the confusion 



INVESTIGATION OF TRUTH. 143 

ur the distinction of two wills and two natures, 
the change of substance, the real or fictitious pre- 
sence, the mode of incarnation, and the like. 

" Hence have sprung up innumerable sects, 
of which two or three hundred have already 
perished, and of which three or four hundred 
others still exist, and are represented by that 
multitude of colours or ensigns, among which 
your sight is bewildered. The first in order, 
which is surrounded by that groupe so gro- 
tesque and fantastic in their attire, with red, 
purple, black, white, and variegated robes, 
with their heads some distinguished by the 
tonsure, some with the hair cut short, and 
others wholly bald, with red hats, square caps, 
mitres, and long beards, (h 2) is the standard 
of the Roman pontiff, who, by conferring on 
the priesthood the pre-eminence of his city in 
a civil view, has erected his supremacy into a 
point of religion, and made of his pride an ar- 
ticle of faith. 

" Again, on the right, you see the Greek 
pontiff, who, tenaciously proud of the opposi- 
sition and rivalship set up by his metropolis, 
comes forward with equal and counter pre- 
tensions, and supports them against the West- 
ern church, by the superior antiquity of that 
of the East. On the left, are the standards of 
two recent chiefs,* who, throwing off a yoke 
that was become tyrannical, have, by the in- 
troduction of their reform, raised altars against 
altars, and gained half Europe from the Pope. 
Behind them are the subordinate sects into 
which these grand parties are again subdivi- 

* Luther and Calvin. 



144 INVESTIGATION OP TRUTH. 

ded, the Nestorians, the Eutycheans, the Ja- 
cobites, the Iconoclasts, the Anabaptists, the 
Presbyterians, the Wicklifites, the Osiandrins, 
the Manicheans, the Pietists, the Adamites, 
the Enthusiasts, the Friends or Quakers, the 
Weepers, together with a hundred others, 
(e 2;) all of distinct parties, of a persecuting 
spirit when strong, tolerant when weak, ha- 
ting each other in the name of a God of peace, 
forming to themselves an exclusive paradise 
in a religion of universal charity, each doom- 
ing the rest to endless torments in another 
world, and realizing here the imaginary hell 
of futurity." 

Next to this groupe, observing a single stan- 
dard of a hyacinth colour, round which were 
gathered men in all the various dresses of Eu- 
rope and Asia : " Here," said I to the Genius, 
" we shall surely find unanimity." — " Yes," re- 
plied he, " so it would seem at first sight, un- 
der the superficial and casual appearances of 
the moment : but do you not know what reli- 
gious system it is ? Then, perceiving in He- 
brew characters the monogram of the name of 
God, and branches of the palm-tree in the 
hands of the Rabbins : " Are not these," said 
I, " the children of Moses, dispersed over the 
earth to this very hour, and who, holding ev- 
ery nation in abhorrence, have been them- 
selves universally abhorred and persecuted?" 
-— -" Yes," replied the Genius, " and it is for 
this very reason, that, having neither time nor 
liberty to dispute, they have preserved the 
appearance of unanimity. But, when they 
come to be reinstated, no sooner shall they 



INVESTIGATION OF TRUTH. 145 

compare their principles, and reason upon 
their opinions, than they will be divided, as 
formerly, at least into two principal sects,* 
one of which, taking andvantage of the si- 
lence of their legislator, and confining itself 
to the literal sense of his books, will deny ev- 
ery dogma therein that is not clearly express- 
ed, and, on that ground, will reject as the in- 
ventions of the circumcised, the immortality of the 
soul, its transmigration into an abode of happi- 
ness or punishment, its resurrection, the last, 
judgment, the existence of both good and evil 
angels, the revolt of a fallen spirit, and all the 
poetical system of a world to come; and this 
favoured people, whose perfection consists in 

cutting oft a small bit of flesh this mere 

atom of people, that in the multitudinous ocean 
of mankind is but as a small wave, and which 
pretends that all things were made for it alone, 
will, in consequence of their schism, reduce 
to one half their already trivial weight in the 
balance of the universe." 

The Genius then directed my attention to 
another groupe, the individuals of which were 
clothed in white robes, had a veil over their 
mouths, and were ranged around a standard 
of the colour of the orient beams of the dawn. On 
this standard was painted a globe, one hemi- 
sphere of which was black and the other 
white. " The fate of these disciples of Zo- 
roaster" (k 2) continued he, " this obscure 
remnant of a people once so powerful, will 
be similar to that of the Jews. Dispersed, as 

# The Sadducees and Pharisees. 

N 



1415 INVESTIGATION OF TRUTH. 

they are at present, among other nations, and 
persecuted by all, they implicitly receive 
without examination or discussion, the pre- 
cepts that are taught them by the representa- 
tive of their prophet; but so soon as their 
Mohed and their Dcstours (I 2,) shall be re-es- 
tablished in their former prerogatives, the 
controversy will be revived respecting the 
good and the bad principle, the engagements of 
Ormuzd, the God of light, and Ahrimanes, the 
God of darkness; the literal or allegorical 
sense of these contests ; the good and evil Ge- 
nii ; the worship of fire and the elements ; pollu- 
tions and ablutions, the resurrection of both body 
and soul, or of the soul alone (m 2 ;) the renova- 
tion of the present world, and the new one which 
is to succeed it. And the Parsees will be split 
into sects, more or less numerous, just in pro- 
portion as their families shall have contracted 
the manners or opinions of foreign nations 
during their dispersion. 

" Next to these are standards which exhi- 
bit, upon an azure ground, monstrous figures 
of human bodies, double, treble, or quadru- 
ple, with the heads of lions, wild boars, and 
elephants, with the tails of fishes, tortoises, 
&c. These are the standards of the sects of 
India, who find their Gods amidst the animal 
creation, and the souls of their kindred in rep- 
tiles and insects. These men support asy- 
lums for the reception of hawks, serpents, and 
rats, and look with horror upon their breth- 
ren of mankind ! They purify themselves with 
the dung and urine of a cow, and consider 
themselves as polluted by the touch of a he- 



INVESTIGATION OF TRUTH. 147 

retic ! They wear a net over their mouths, 
lest by accident a fly should get down their 
throats, and they should thus swallow a soul 
in purgatory; and yet, with all these exqui- 
site and tender-hearted feelings of humanity, 
they will suffer a Paria (n 2) to perish with 
hunger, without a single sensation of remorse, 
rather than relieve him ! They worship the 
same Divinities, but enlist themselves under 
the banners of different competitors and an- 
tagonists. 

" This first standard, separated from the 
rest, and on which you see represented a 
figure with four heads, is that of Brama, who, 
though the God of Creation, has no longer ei- 
ther followers or temples, and who, reduced 
to serve as a pedestal to the Lingam (o 2,) re- 
ceives no other mark of attention than a little 
water which the Bramin every morning casts 
over his shoulder to him, reciting at the same 
time a barren hymn in his praise. 

" The second standard, on which you see 
painted a kite with a red body and white 
head, is that of Vichenou, who, though the God 
of preservation, has passed a part of his life in 
mischievous adventures. Sometimes, you see 
him under the hideous forms of a wild boar 
and of a lion, gnawing and tearing human en- 
trails in pieces ; sometimes under that of a 
horse, (j? 2,) about to appear, armed with a 
drawn sabre, in order to put an end to the 
present age, to extinguish the luminaries of 
heaven, to dash the stars to shivers, to crush the 
terraqueous globe, and to cause the mighty serpent 



148 INVESTIGATION OF TRUTH. 

to vomit a flame which shall consume the ivhok 
orbs of the planetary system. 

" The third standard is that of Chiven, the 
God of destruction and desolation, and who never- 
theless has for his emblem the sign of produc- 
tion : he is the worst and most odious of the 
three, and yet he has the greatest number of 
followers. Jealously proud of his attribute 
and character, his partizans in their devotion 
(9 2) express the most sovereign contempt for 
the rest of his equals and brother divinities, 
and, imitating the strange incongruity, by 
which he is distinguished, they profess mo- 
desty and chastity, and at the same time pub- 
licly crown with flowers and bathe with milk 
and honey the obscene image of the Lingam. 

" Behind them again come the inferior stan- 
dards of a multitude of Gods, male, female, 
and hermaphrodite, who in the capacity of 
relations and friends of the three principal 
ones, have passed their lives in contests with 
each other, and are, in this respect, imitated 
by their worshippers. These Gods are in 
want of nothing, and yet are eternally receiv- 
ing offerings. They are omnipotent, and by 
their omnipresence fill the whole universe, 
and yet a Bramin, by muttering a short incan- 
tation, imprisons them in an image or a pitch- 
er, and retails their favours according to his 
own will and pleasure. 

" At a still greater distance, you will ob- 
serve a multitude of other standards, which 
have upon a yellow ground, common to them 
all, different emblems exhibited upon them, 
and are the standards of owe God, who, under 



'investigation of truth. 149 

various names, is acknowledged by the na- 
tions of the East. The Chinese worship him 
under the name of Fot (r 2.) ; the Japanese 
under that of Budso ; the inhabitants of Ceylon 
under that of Beddhou ; the people of Laos 
under that of Chekia ; the Peguan under that 
of Phta ; the Siamese under that of Sommono- 
Kodom ; the people of Thibet under that of 
Budd and of La. All of them, agreeing as to 
some points of his history, celebrate his peni- 
tent life, his mortifications, his fastings, his func- 
tions of mediator and expiafor, the enmity of 
another God his adversary, their conflicts, and 
his ascendency. But disagreeing respecting the 
means of recommending themselves to his fa- 
vour, they dispute about rites and practical 
services, and the dogmas of their interior and 
of their public doctrine. Here you may observe 
the Japanese Bonze, in a yellow robe, with his 
head uncovered, who preaches the eternity 
of souls and their successive transmigration 
into different bodies; and his contiguous ri- 
val, the Sintoist, who denies that the soul can 
exist independently of the senses {s 2.), and 
maintains that it is a mere effect, caused by the 
operation of the sensitive organs, with which, 
as such r it is connected, and with which it 
perishes, like sounds with the destruction of a 
musical instrument. There you see the Sia- 
mese^ with shaved eye-brows, and with the Ta- 
lipat screen in his hand (J 2.), who recom- 
mends alms-giving, expiations, and offerings, 
and yet believes in blind predestination and 
implacable necessity. The Chinese Ho-Chang, 
sacrifices to the souls of his ancestors, while 

N 2. 



150 INVESTIGATION OP TRUTH. 

his neighbour, the follower of Confucius, at- 
tempts to discover his horoscope and future 
destiny by the tossing at random of artificial 
fishes or counters and the conjunction of the 
stars (u 2.) Observe that infant surrounded 
by a swarm of priests with yellow garments 
and hats : he is the Grand Lama into whom 
God of Thibet has just passed and become in- 
carnate (v 2.) He has, however, a rival to 
share this blessing along with him ; and, on 
the banks of the Baikal, the Kalmuc Tartar 
boasts his God, as well as the Tartar of La-sa, 
But, being both unanimous, in this important 
point, that God can only take up his residence 
in one human body at a time, they ridicule 
the gross stupidity of the Braminical Indian, 
who sanctifies and looks with an eye of reve- 
rence upon the dung of the cow, while they 
themselves consecrate and preserve with no 
less awe the loathsome excrements of their 
pontiff (iv 2.)" 

Beside these standards, an innumerable mul- 
titude of others presenting themselves to our 
notice : " I should never have done, 5 ' said the 
Genius, " were I to detail to you all the differ- 
ent systems of belief, into which nations are 
split. Here the Tartar Hordes adore, under 
the emblematical figures of animals, birds, and 
insects, the good and evil Genii, who, in subor- 
dination to a supreme but listless divinity, go- 
vern the universe, and, in their idolatry, ex- 
hibit evident traces of the ancient paganism 
of the western world. You see the grotesque 
and whimsical dress of their Chamans, who, 
wearing a robe of leather decorated with lit- 



INVESTIGATION OF TRUTH. 151 

tie hells and rattles, with idols of iron, claws of 
birds, skins of serpents, and heads of owls, are 
agitated with pretended convulsions, and, by 
magical incantations, evoke the dead in order 
to deceive the living. There you behold the 
sable inhabitants of Africa, who, in the wor- 
ship of their Fetiches, present the same opin- 
ions. Again, you have the inhabitant of Ju- 
da, who adores God under the figure of an 
enormous serpent, which the swine unluckily 
regard as a delicious morsel (jc 2.) Observe 
the Teleutean who dresses the figure of his 
God in a uniform of all colours, and supposes 
him to resemble a Russian soldier; also the 
Kamchadale, who finding that things fare ill 
with him in this world in his own climate, re- 
presents God to himself under the figure of a 
capricious and ill-tempered old man (?/ 2,) smok- 
ing his pipe and seated in his sledge chasing 
foxes and marterns. In fine you will remark 
a hundred savage nations besides, who, hav- 
ing none of those ideas which are prevalent 
among civilized people, respecting God, the 
soul, and a future state, have no species of 
worship whatsoever among them, and yet are 
not the less favoured with the gifts of nature 
in this religionless state, in which she has cre- 
ated them." 



152 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

CHAP. XXL 

PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS CONTRADICTIONS, 

The different groupes having by this time 
taken their stations, and the noisy buzz of the 
multitude having subsided into a profound si- 
lence, the legislators said : — " Chiefs and in- 
structors of the people ! Ye now are sensibly 
convinced, that the various nations of the 
globe, in consequence of their living so detach- 
ed and so remotely situated from one another, 
have eaeh chalked out for themselves a differ- 
ent course, every one pursuing that route, 
which appeared from the map of its own judg- 
ment to lead to truth. But, if there be only 
one road to it, and if opinions take a contrary 
direction one to another, it is sufficiently obvi- 
ous, that somebody must have missed their 
way. And, if it be found, that so numerous 
an assemblage of people have swerved from 
the right path, what person can assure him- 
self, with any ground of confidence, that he 
has not himself mistaken his way ? — Where- 
fore, let us, in the first place, set out upon our 
enterprise of discovery by mutually opening 
the candour of our hearts indulgently to each 
other, and that too with a serious and philan- 
thropic determination not to be warped or 
seduced from ourselves in that respect by any 
motives originating from a discordance or 
contrariety of opinion. — Let us then advance 
into the field of investigation, and commence 
our search after truth, as if we were all entire 
strangers to it. For, the opinions, that to this 



CONTRADICTIONS. 153 

hour have governed the nations of the earth, 
produced by mere hazard, propagated in the 
shade of obscurity, sanctified and bowed down 
to without hesitation or scrutiny, and patron- 
ized from a love of novelty and imitation, have? 
by a clandestine operation, nearly usurped 
the whole of their empire. It is high time, 
therefore, if they be actually founded in fact, 
to identify and attest their certainty by a so- 
lemn recognition, and thereby to legitimate 
their existence. Let us accordingly submit 
them this day to the ordeal of a general and 
impartial examination : — let every one pro- 
duce the credentials of his faith : — let the rest 
give their verdict upon them : and let us ac- 
knowledge that to be the only true belief which 
can be universally admitted, as such, by the 
whole human race." 

Then, from the order in which they were 
respectively stationed, the first standard on 
the left obtained the privilege of opening the 
discussion :— " There cannot be a shadow of 
doubt," said they, " that ours is the only true, 
the only infallible doctrine. In the first place, 
it is self-evidently revealed by God himself," 

" So also is ours," exclaimed all the other 
standards, " and that too beyond the possibi- 
lity of a doubt." 

" But it is requisite," interposed the legis- 
lators, " that we should be told what it is : 
for, it were impossible to believe what we know 
nothing about." 

" Our doctrine," resumed the first standard, 
44 is proved by a numerous train of facts, by a 
multiplicity of miracles, by resurrections from 



154 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

the dead, by rivers suddenly dried up, by 
mountains transported to a distance, and by a 
crowd of other facts, which it would be end- 
less to enumerate." 

" We also," cried the rest, " we can adduce 
miracles in vindication of our faith without 
number :" — and each began to corroborate 
and verify their assertions by the most incre- 
dible recitals. 

" Their miracles," replied the first stand- 
ard, " are either the prodigies of a credulous and 
superstitious imagination, or wrought by the de- 
moniacal agency of the evil spirit, who has be- 
guiled them by his deceptions." 

" Yours," retorted the others, " yours are 
the machinations of fancy and superstitious 
credulity:"- — and all, speaking individually of 
themselves, added : " None are true ones but 
our own ; as to all other miracles, they are 
downright forgeries." 

And the legislators said, "Have you any 
living witnesses to attest them ?" 

" No," replied they, " the facts are of an- 
cient date, and the witnesses are long since 
dead, but they are left upon record in their 
writings." 

" Be it so," said the legislators : " but if 
they be found in direct contradiction to each 
other, who is to reconcile them?" 

One of the standards, in return, emphati- 
cally exclaimed : " J ust arbitrators ! as a proof 
that our witnesses had ocular conviction of 
the truths in question, they sacrificed their 
lives in confirmation of them: so that our 



CONTRADICTIONS. 15/) 

creed is actually sealed with the blood of mar- 
tyrs." 

" So also is ours," re-echoed the rest: " we 
can cite the history of thousands of martyrs, 
who died with the most heroical fortitude, 
braving the most agonizing tortures, without 
ever swerving from the faith, or abjuring the 
truth in a single point." — And the Christians 
of every sect, the Mussulmen, the Indians, the 
Japanese, all quoted a numberless catalogue 
of biographical narratives and memorials of 
dying confessors, martyrs, penitents, and the 
like. 

And one of the parties having denied the 
authenticity of the martyrollogy of their op- 
ponents : " Well," cried they, " we are ready 
to die ourselves in proof of the infallibility of 
our creed." 

And instantly a crowd of men of every sect 
and religion presented themselves to endure 
either death or whatever torments might be 
inflicted upon them. And numbers of them 
began to tear their arms, and to beat their 
heads and their breasts, without betraying the 
least visible symptom of pain. 

But the legislators interposing began to re- 
monstrate with them : " O fellow men !" said 
they, "hear with composure what we wish to 
submit to your consideration. If you die, in 
order to prove that two and two make four, 
will this truth gain additional confirmation by 
your death ?" 

" No," exclaimed the groupes with one una- 
nimous negative. 

" And provided you die, in order to prove 



156 PROGRESS OF RELIGIOL; 

thai they make five, will that make them 
five?" 

•• No." replied they with the same unani- 
mous voice. 

*• \^ ell." continued the legislators. •* what 
then does all this persuasion of yours tend to 
prove, if it make no manner of alteration in 
the existence of things ? — Truth is uniformly 
one and the same; — your opinions are multi- 
form and various: consequently, a considera- 
ble number of you must necessarily be mista- 
ken. And. if those, who are in this predica- 
ment, can. as is evidently the case, be confi- 
dently persuaded of fallacy and error, how 
can persuasion be regarded as demonstrative 
evidence ? Again, if error has its martyrs 
who sacrifice themselves in defence of it. how 
is martvrdom a iust criterion of truth? If the 
evil spirit be capable of working miracles, 
how will vou draw a line betwixt him and the 
Divinity ? Besides, why thus continually re- 
sort to incomplete and incompetent miracles ? 
"V\ by not rather, instead of these marvellous 
changes and deviations from the fixed course 
of nature, miraculously change the course of 
opinions ? Why murder and terrify men. in- 
stead of enlightening and correcting their ig- 
norance ? 

;i O credulous and opinionated mortals ! If 
we are none of us absolutely certain of what 
passed yesterday, nor even of what is passing 
this very dav before our own eves, how can 
we solemnly pledge ourselves for the truth of 
what happened two thousand years ago? 

t; Weak and presumptuous men! the laws 



CONTRADICTIONS. 1 5? 

of nature are invariable and unerringly pro- 
found, but our vague and shallow understand- 
ings are full of infatuation and vain illusion ; 
and jet we take upon ourselves to compre- 
hend and to resolve every thing that comes 
in our way. But, in reality, it were much ea- 
sier for the whole human race to fall into er- 
ror, than for a single atom to change or forget 
its nature." 

" Well," said one of the reverend sages, 
" setting aside all evidence built upon facts 
of this nature, since they may possibly be 
equivocal, let us attend to the proofs deduci- 
ble from reason and the intrinsic merit of the 
doctrine itself." 

An Imdn of the law of Mahomet, with a look 
of confidence, then stepped forward, and hav- 
ing turned himself towards Mecca, and utter- 
ed with emphasis his profession of faith : "Let 
God be praised /" said he, with a grave and so- 
lemn accent, " the light shines in all its splen- 
dour, and the truth hath no need of examina- 
tion." Then exhibiting the Koran : " Here," 
continued he, " is the light and the truth in 
their very essence ! There is no doubt in this 
book ; it guides without error the man who impli- 
citly believes ivithout the intuitive evidence of his 
senses, who receives without discussion the divine 
revelation, which was sent down unto the prophet 
to save the 'simple and to confound the wise. God 
hath appointed Mahomet to be his minister upon 
earth ; he has delivered up the world to him, that 
he might subdue by his sword such as refuse to be- 
lieve in his law. The infidels dispute, and will not 
helieve ; their obduracy proceeds from God, who 

o 



li)8 PROBLEM OP RELIGIOUS 

hath hardened and sealed up their hearts, that he 
might deliver them over to the most terrible chas- 
tisements."* 

Here he was interrupted by a violent mur- 
mur proceeding from every quarter. " What 
man is this," cried all the groupes,"who thus 
gratuitously insults us ? By what right does 
he pretend, as a conqueror and a tyrant, to 
impose his creed upon us ? Has not God gift- 
ed us as well as himself with eyes, with un- 
derstanding, and with reason ? And have we 
not an equal right to make use of them in in- 
forming ourselves what we ought to reject, 
and what to believe ? If he has a right to at- 
tack, have not we a right to defend ourselves? 
If he chuses to believe without examination, 
are we, therefore, not to employ our own 
judgment in forming a rational belief for our- 
selves ? 

" And what is all this splendid and luminous 
doctrine which dreads the light? What this 
apostle of a merciful God who preaches only 
murder and carnage ? What this God of justice, 
who punishes the blindness of which he him- 
self is the cause? If violence and persecution 
be the arguments of truth, must mildness and 
charity be therefore regarded as the charac- 
teristic attributes of falsehood ?" 

Then a person from a neighbouring groupe 
advanced and said to the Iman :« — "'Well, even 

* This passage contains the sense and nearly the very 
words of the first chapter of the Koran ; and the reader will 
observe in general, that in the sketches that follow, the wri- 
ter has endeavoured to give as accurately as possible the let- 
ter and spirit ef the opiniens ©f each party. 



CONTRADICTIONS. 159 

admitting Mahomet to be the apostle of a su- 
perior doctrine, the prophet of the true reli- 
gion, — be so obliging as to inform us, which 
of the two we are to follow in order to prac- 
tise it — his son-in-law All, or his vicars Omar 
and AboubekreT' (z 2.) 

He had scarcely mentioned these names, 
when a terrible schism arose among the Mus- 
sulmen. The partisans of Omar and of Alt, 
treating each other as heretics and profane apos- 
tates, poured forth against each other a whole 
volley of maledictions. Their language even 
became so violent, and the affray so serious 
at last, that the neighbouring groupes were 
obliged to interpose, in order to prevent their 
coming to blows." 

At length, when the storm had a little aba- 
ted, the legislators addressing themselves to 
the Imans : " Ye now see," said they, " the 
consequences resulting from your principles I 
Were they carried into practice, you would, 
by your mutual enmity, proceed from one ex- 
tremity to another, destroying each other till 
not an individual would be left; and is it not 
the the first law of God— to let man live? Then 
addressing themselves to the other groupes: 
" This exclusive spirit of intolerance," said 
they, " undoubtedly militates against every 
idea of justice, and saps the very foundation 
of morality and of society : would it not, how- 
ever, be proper, before we absolutely reject 
this doctrinal code, to hear some of its dog- 
mas recited, that we may not partially decide 
from forms alone without having fundamental- 
ly investigated the religion itself?" 



160 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

And, the groupes acceding to the propo- 
sition, the Iman began to explain to them how 
God, who before-time had spoken to the nations 
sunk in idolatry^ twenty-four thousand prophets ; 
had at length sent the last, the seal and perfection of 
all the rest, Mahomet, in whom was vested the sal- 
vation of peace : how to prevent the word of 
truth from being any more perverted by infi- 
dels, the divine mercy had written with his own 
hand the leaves of the Koran ; and, expatiating 
upon the dogmas of Islamism, the Iman ex- 
plained how the Koran, by virtue of its being 
the word of God, was, like its divine author, 
uncreated and eternal : how it had been transmitted 
from heaven leaf by leaf in twenty-four thousand 
nocturnal apparitions of the angel Gabriel; how 
the angel announced his approach by a small 
clicking noise, ivhich threw the prophet into a cold 
sweat ; how in the vision of one night, he tra- 
velled through ninety heavens, mounted upon the 
animal called Borah, one half woman and one half 
horse ; how, being endowed with the gift of 
miracles, he walked in the sunshine without produc- 
ing any shadow, caused with a single word trees al- 
ready ivithered to resume their verdure, filled the 
wells and the cisterns with water, and split the disk 
of the moon in two ; that, under the authority of a 
commission from heaven, Mahomet had propa* 
p-ated, by dint of the sword, a religion the most 
worthy of God for its sublimity, the most suitable 
for man from the simplicity of its practical in- 
junctions, as consisting only of eight or ten lead- 
ing; points : such as, to confess the unity of God ; to 
acknowledge Mahomet as his only prophet ; to pray 
five times in the day; to fast one month in the year ; 



CONTRADICTIONS. 161 

to pay a visit to Mecca once at least in our lives ; 
to pay the tenth of all that we possess ; to drink no 
wine, to eat no swine's flesh, and to make war upon 
the infidels (a 3.) ; by which means every Mus- 
sulman, becoming himself an apostle and a 
martyr, would enjoy in this world an infinity 
of blessings, and at his death his soul, being 
iveighed in the balance of works, and his absolu- 
tion pronounced by the two black angels, would 
pass over the bridge extended across the infer- 
nal abyss, which is no broader than a hair, and 
as sharp as the edge of a sword, and % would be 
finally received into the paradise of bliss, wa- 
tered with rivers of milk and honey, and em- 
balmed with the perfumes of India and Ara- 
bia, where it would live in uninterrupted com- 
merce with those chaste females, the celestial 
Houris, who present an incessantly renewed 
virginity to the elect, who enjoy a perpetual- 
ly renovated youth. 

This curious relation excited an involunta- 
ry smile in the countenance of every one ; and 
the various groupes, meditating upon these 
articles of belief, unanimously exclaimed : — 
44 How is it possible for rational beings to 
have faith in such strange reveries? Might 
not one suppose that a chapter had been just 
read to us from the " Thousand and One Nights." 

And a Samoiede stepping forward, said:-— 
44 The paradise of Mahomet is in my opinion 
excellent ; but one of the means of arriving 
at it puzzles me extremely. For, if it be ne- 
cessary to abstain from meat and drink between 
the rising and setting sun, as their prophet ordains, 
how is such fasting practicable in our country, 

o2 



162 PROBLEM OP RELIGIOUS 

where the sun continues above the horizon for six 
months together V* 

To vindicate the honour of their prophet 
the Mussulmen doctors all flatly denied the 
possibility of the fact; but a hundred people 
bearing testimony to the truth of it, the infal- 
libility of Mahomet sustained a violent shock, 

" It is a little singular," said a European, 
" that God should have continually revealed 
what was going on in heaven, without ever 
having informed us of what was passing upon 
earth!" 

u For my part," said an American, " I find 
an insuperable difficulty in this pilgrimage of 
theirs. For, let us suppose a generation to 
be twenty-five years, and the number of males 
existing on the face of the globe to be a hun- 
dred millions : in this case, every one being 
obliged to travel to Mecca once during his 
life, there would be four millions of people an- 
nually upon the road; and, as it would not be 
possible for them to return in the same year, 
the number would consequently be doubled, 
that is to say, would amount to eight millions. 
Now, where are there provisions, lodging, wa- 
ter, and vessels to be found sufficient for the 
accommodation of such a host of ablutionary 
travellers every where on their march ? — In 
fact, miracles must be wrought to surmount 
such immense obstacles." 

" That the religion of Mahomet is not a re- 
velation from heaven," said a Catholic divine, 
" is fully proved from a great part of the no- 
tions on which it is founded, having existed for 
a long time prior to its establishment ; so that it 



CONTRADICTIONS. 163 

is nothing more than a confused miscellany of 
perverted truths, purloined from our holy re- 
ligion and that of the Jews, which an ambi- 
tious individual has made subservient to his 
own selfish projects of dominion, and his 
worldly views. Peruse his book, and you will 
find little else than the histories of the Old 
and New Testament travestied into the most 
puerile and absurd tales, and the rest of it a 
tissue of vague and contradictory declama- 
tion, of ridiculous or dangerous precepts. — - 
Again, sift and analyze the spirit of these pre- 
cepts and the conduct of their apostle: and 
you will find a shrewd and daring character, 
which, to carry his own purposes, works with 
admirable address, it is true, upon the pas- 
sions of those whom he wishes to govern. — 
He directs his discourse to simple and credu- 
lous men, and fills their minds with pretended 
prodigies. They are ignorant and jealous 5 
and he flatters their vanity by holding up sci- 
ence as an object of contempt ; — they are 
poor and rapacious, and he inflames their de- 
sires by the hope of plunder; — having nothing 
at first to give them upon earth, he creates 
treasures in heaven ; he makes them long for 
death as the greatest of blessings ; he threat- 
ens the cowardly with hell; he promises pa- 
radise to the brave ; and animates the weak 
by the notions of predestination and fatality: 
in short, he produces that zeal and enthusi- 
asm, which he finds requisite for the prosecu- 
tion of his designs, by every thing that can in- 
vite and captivate the senses, by every prove- 



164 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

cative and allurement that can interest or in- 
list all or any of the passions in his favour. 

" How different the character of the Chris- 
tian doctrine ! and how much does its empire, 
established on the counteraction of every na- 
tural inclination and the extinction of all the 
passions, prove its celestial origin ! How for- 
cibly does its mild, compassionate, and con- 
solatory morality attest its emanation from the 
Divinity ! Many of its dogmas, it is true, soar 
beyond the reach of the human understanding, 
and impose on reason a respectful silence ; 
but this very circumstance tends the more ful- 
ly to confirm and authenticate its origin, since 
the inventive faculties of man could never of 
themselves, have attained to such sublime 
mysteries." — Then, with the Bible in one hand, 
and the Four Evangelists in the other, he be- 
gan to relate, that in the beginning, God (af- 
ter having passed an eternity without doing 
any thing) conceived at length the design 
(without ostensible motive) of forming the 
world out of nothing: that having in six days 
created the whole universe, he found himself 
fatigued on the seventh : that having placed 
the first human pair in a delicious garden, in 
order to make them completely happy, he ne- 
vertheless forbad them to taste of the fruit of 
a certain tree which he planted within their 
reach : that these first parents having yielded 
to temptation, all their posterity (that was 
yet to be born) were condemned to suffer the 
penalty of a fault which they had no share in 
committing : that, after permitting the human 
species to damn themselves for four or five 



CONTRADICTIONS. 16& 

thousand years, this God of mercy had order- 
ed his dearly-beloved son, engendered with- 
out a mother and of the same age with hin> 
self, to descend upon the earth in order to be 
put to death, and that too (without his being 
known but to a mere handful of people) for 
the universal salvation of mankind, the major 
part of which has nevertheless continued to 
march on in the very same road to perdition 
as before : that to remedy this additional in- 
convenience, this God, the son of a woman, 
who was at the same time both a mother and 
a virgin, after having died and risen again> 
is born afresh every day, and, under the form 
of a morsel of dough is multiplied a thousand- 
fold at the voice and discretion even of the 
basest of mankind. Having explained these 
dogmas, he was going on to treat at large of 
the doctrine of the Sacraments, of the power- 
ful binding of the soul by sin, and the unbinding 
of it by absolution, of the means of purifying 
men from crimes of every sort with a few drops 
of water and the muttering of a few words; 
but he had no sooner pronounced the terms 
indulgence, papal prerogative, sufficient and effectual 
grace, than he was interrupted by a thousand 
voices at once. " It is a horrid corruption" 
cried the Lutherans, " to pretend to sell for 
money the pardon of sins." " It is totally in- 
consistent with the genuine sense and spirit of 
the gospel," said the Calvinists, " to talk of the 
real presence in the Sacrament." — " The Pope," 
exclaimed the Jansenists, " has no power to 
decide upon any thing of himself" — Thirty 
sects at once mutually accused each other of 



166 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

heresy and blasphemy, and the clamour and 
vociferation became at length so great, that 
it was no longer possible to distinguish a syl- 
lable they uttered. 

After some time, however, silence was re- 
stored ; when the Mussulmen, addressing 
themselves to the legislators, claimed the pri- 
vilege of being heard : — " Since you have re- 
jected our doctrine, 7 ' said they, " as contain- 
ing things which you deem incredible, can you 
possibly admit that of the Christians ? Is it 
not infinitely more contradictory to justice 
and common sense ? An immaterial and infinite 
God to transform himself into a man! To have 
a son as old as himself! This Man-God to be- 
come bread, which is eaten and which under- 
goes digestion! What absurdities, let us ask> 
have we equal to these ? And have these men 
the exclusive right of exacting a blind and im- 
plicit obedience to their faith ? And will you 
concede to them such extraordinary theologi- 
cal privileges to our detriment?" 

Some savage tribes next advanced. — 
" What," cried they, " because a man and a 
woman chanced to eat an apple six thousand 
years ago? is the whole human race to be in- 
volved in damnation ? And ye talk too of 
your God being just : — Now, what tyrant ever 
made children responsible for the sins of their 
fathers ? How can one man be accountable 
for the actions of another ? Would not this be 
a fatal stab to every principle of equity and 
of reason ?" 

" Where," exclaimed others again, "■ are 
the witnesses, the proofs of all these pretend* 



CONTRADICTIONS. 167 

ed facts ? Are we to take them barely upon 
trust without the examination of evidence? 
The most trivial action in a court of judica- 
ture requires at least two witnesses, and are 
we to believe and take ail this for granted up- 
on mere tradition and hearsay ?" 

A Jewish Rabbin then, addressing the as- 
sembly, said : " For the simple facts them- 
selves we are ready to stand vouchers ; but, 
as to the form and the application that has 
been made of those facts, the case is widely 
different, it being here that the Christians pass 
the sentence of condemnation upon them- 
selves by the very testimony of their own lips : 
for, they cannot deny that we are the primi- 
tive root and parent stock from which they 
are religiously descended, — that ours is the 
sacred trunk upon which their doctrine has 
been grafted : — whence it follows as an inevi- 
table consequence, either that our law is from 
God, and, if so, then theirs, by deviating from 
ours, becomes, of course, a heresy; or, else 
that our law is not from God, and, in that case, 
the divinity of theirs sinks along with that of 
ours, with which it is derivatively and insepa- 
rably linked. 

" But there is an important line of distinc- 
tion to be drawn betwixt them," said the 
Christian, " to which it is necessary to attend. 
Your law is of God as typical and preparative, 
not as final and absolute ; you are but the sha- 
dow, of which we are the substance." 

" We know well," replied the Rabbin, " that 
such is the customary plea to which you re- 
sort in your own defence ; but it is a gratui- 



168 PROBLEM OP RELIGIOUS 

tous and false assumption. Your system rests 
entirely on mystical {b 3) constructions, on vi- 
sionary and allegorical interpretations. You mur- 
der and pervert the letter of our books, you 
continually substitute for the true sense and 
genuine acceptation of a passage the most 
preposterous and romantic conceits of your 
own, and discover in them whatever is most 
agreeable to your fancy, just as a roving ima- 
gination discovers the figure of different things 

in the clouds Thus, you have feigned a 

spiritual Messiah, where our prophets speak 
only of a political king. You have construed 
into a redemption of the human race, what 
expressly and solely refers to the re-establish- 
ment of our nation. Your pretended concep- 
tion of the virgin is grounded upon a phrase 
which you have forcibly and unnaturally 
wrested from its true meaning. And thus you 
ramble on at pleasure in the fairy-land of 
your own imagination, conjuring every thing 
by exposition into whatever import is most 
convenient for your purpose. Nay, you eyen 
manage to detect in our books your doctrine 
of the Trinity, though they contain not the 
most indirect allusion to it, being a prevalent 
notion among profane nations, and admitted 
Into your system of religion together with a 
multitude of other opinions of every worship 
and sect, out of which it was fabricated dur- 
ing the chaos and anarchy of the three first 
ages." 

At these words, foaming with indignation, 
and bellowing out — profaneness, — blasphemy,-*— 
the Christian ecclesiastics felt disposed to lay 



CONTRADICTIONS. 169 

violent hands upon the Jew : and a motly host 
of monks, dressed in black and white, advan- 
cing with a banner on which a pair of pincers, 
a gridiron, and a pile of faggots, together with 
the words, justice, charity, and mercy, were paint- 
ed,* cried out : " It is absolutely incumbent 
upon us to make a religious example, an act of 
faith of these impious heretics, and to burn 
them alive for the glory of God." And they 
had actually planned out the scene of torture, 
when the Mussulmen in a strain of irony ex- 
claimed : " Such forsooth is the religion of 
peace, whose humble, humane, and gentle spirit 
ye have so loudly vaunted ! Such that evange- 
lical charity which combats incredulity with no 
other weapon than that of meekness, and oppo- 
ses only patience to injuries! — O ye high-sound- 
ing but double-hearted hypocrites! and so it 
is thus ye deceive nations- — it is thus ye have 
propagated your poisonous and destructive 
errors! When weak, ye have preached up li- 
berty, toleration and peace; when powerful, ye 
have practised violence and persecution/" .... 
And they were proceeding to give an histori- 
cal detail of the bloody wars and murders of 
the Christians, when the legislators, proclaim- 
ing silence, gave a check to these jarring ef- 
fusions of irascibility and resentment. 

" It is not," replied the particolored monks, 
in a tone of affected meekness and humilitv, 
" it is not in behalf of ourselves that we de- 
mand vengeance ; it is the cause and glory of 
God that we have alone at heart, and which 

# Such is the real ensign of the Inquisition of Spanish Ja- 
cobins. 

P 



J 70 PROBLEM QF RELIGIOUS 

we feel ourselves called upon in .bis name to 
defend." 
" And what right have you" said the Imam, 

"to make, yourselves his representatives more than 

we have ? What privileges, in the name of won- 
der, have yoil to value yourselves upon on 
that SCore, which we have not also? Are you 

a different order of human beings from our- 
selves ?" 

44 To presume to defend God" said another 
gfoupe, "or to avenge his cause, is a down- 
right insult upou his wisdom and omnipo- 
tence. Does he not know what becomes his 
own dignity better than men?" 

"Certainly," rejoined the monks; "but his 
ways are secret." 

" That you enjoy the exclusive privilege of 
comprehending them," said the Rabbins, " is, 
however, a problem, which we (\(Ay you ever 
to demonstrate."— And the Jews, proud of 
finding supporters who leaned towards their 
cause, were willing to Hatter themselves with 
the idea that the books of Moses would be tri- 
umphant; when the Jfflobed* of the Parsees 
came forward to speak : — 

44 We have heard," said lie to the legisla- 
tors, "the account of the Jews and Chris- 
tians respecting the origin of the world, and, 
though prodigiously altered and disfigured, 
yet, it evidently contains a number of facts 
which Our religion admits; but we solemnly 
protest against the idea of their having origi- 
nated with the Hebrew legislator. It was not 
be who made known to mankind these sub- 

» High Priest. 



COM RADIC1 IO.W3. 17 I 

lime dogmas and celestial occurrence-; it 
was not to him that God revealed them, but 
to our holy prophet Zoroaster; and unques- 
tionable proofs of this are legible on the very 
fece of their own books. For, if you examine 
witfi attention the detail of laws, of ceremo- 
nies, and of precept- established by Mo 
yon will no where find the most tacit indica- 
tion of what constitutes at present the basis 
of the Jewish and Christian theology. You 
will not discover a -ingle trace either of the 
immortality of the soul, or of a future state, or of 
hell and paradise, or of the revolt of the principal 
angel, the author of ail the evils which have befallen 
the human race, frc. These notions were un- 
known to Moses, and the reason of this is ob- 
vious and peremptory, because it was not till 
four hundred years after his time that they 
were broached and promulgated by Zoroaster 
in Asia/' (e ?j.j 

The Mobed further added, addressing him- 
self to the Rabbins: — ;i It was not till after I 
sera, that is, till after the age of year first 
king-, that these notions appeared in youi 
writings; and even then they found theirway 
into them but by degrees, and stole into th( 
imperceptibly at first, $wing to the politic 
relations subsisting between your ar.ee-' 
and ours, ft was more particularly at the pe- 
riod when your progenitors, conquered ar,d 
die p s re e d by t h e k i n g s o f N i n ft i eh a nd 1 5a by- 
Ion, resorted to the bank- of the 'i igris 
the Eupljratcs, and, by residing in c Min- 
ify for three suec- genera , imbibed 
and became impregnated with our mann< 



172 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

and opinions, which before-time they had re- 
garded with aversion, as contrary to their law. 
At the time when our king, Cyrus, delivered 
them from slavery, their hearts glowed with 
gratitude towards us; they became our pro- 
selytes and imitators, and introduced our doc- 
trines into their sacred books at the time they 
new modelled and reformed them, (c/3;) for, 
your Genesis, in particular, never was the work 
of Moses, but a compilation digested on the 
return from the Babylonish capivity, in which 
the Chaldean opinions respecting the origin 
of the world were inserted. 

" At first, the pure followers of the law, op- 
posing the emigrants by recalling their atten- 
tion to the pure letter of the text, and to the 
absolute silence of the prophet touching the 
points in question, endeavoured to counteract 
these innovations; but our doctrine, notwith- 
standing, finally prevailed, which being modi- 
lied according to your peculiar taste and ideas, 
*jave rise to a new sect. You looked for a 
king, the restorer of your political indepen- 
dence: we announced a God, the regenerator 
of the world, and the saviour of mankind. The 
combination of these ideas constituted the te- 
nets of the Essenians, and through them be- 
came the basis of Christianity. And whatever 
may be your suppositions or pretensions, ye 
Jews, ye Christians, and ye Mahometans, ye 
are, with regard to your system of spiritual be- 
ings, no more than the blundering followers of 
Zoroaster /" 

Then the Mobtd began to give an outline of 
the articles of his own religion, and supporting 



CONTRADICTIONS. 173 

his observations by quotations from the Sad- 
der and the Zend-avesta, recounted in the same 
order as they are found in the book of Gene- 
sis, the creation of the world in six gahans (e3.)/ 
the formation of a first man and a first woman 
in a celestial abode, under the reign of good ; 
the introduction of evil into the world bv the 
great snake, the emblem of Ahrimanes ; the revolt 
and conflicts of this maleficent genius of darkness 
against Ormuzd the benificent God of light ; the 
distribution of angels into white and black, good 
and evil ; the various orders of their hierarchy 
consisting of cherubim, seraphim, thrones, domin- 
ions, 8{c. ; the end of the world at the close of six 
thousand years ; the corning of the Lamb, the re- 
generator of nature ; the new world ; a future life 
in a place of happiness or misery ; the passage of 
souls over the bridge across the abyss ; the ceremo- 
nies in the mysteries of Mythras ; the unlea- 
vened bread eaten by those who were initi- 
ated therein; the baptism of new-born infants; 
the unction of the dead, and the confession of ; 
sins (/\3.).; in a word, be repeated so ma- 
ny articles analagous to those of the three re- 
ligions already alluded to, that his discourse 
seemed to be a commentary or a continuation 
of the Koran and the Apocalypse. 

But the Jewish, Christian, and Mahometan 
Divines vehemently protested against this 
statement, and treating the Parsees, as idola- 
ters and worshippers of fire, charged them with 
falsehood, forgeries, and a spurious represen- 
tation of facts. And there arose a violent dis- 
pute respecting the periodical dates of events, 
their chronological order and succession, the 

p2. 



174 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

genuine origin of opinions, their transmission 
from one people to another, the authenticity 
of the books on the authority of which they 
were built, the period when they were writ- 
ten, the character of their compilers, the com- 
parative validity of their testimony; — and the 
different parties proving each other to be guil- 
ty of contradictions, improbabilities, and apo- 
chryphal frauds, reciprocally accused one an- 
other of having founded their creed upon po- 
pular reports, vague traditions, and absurd fa- 
bles, invented by folly, and admitted without 
examination by unknown, ignorant, or partial 
writers at uncertain periods and under false 
historical dates. 

A considerable murmur was now excited 
under the banners of the various sects of India; 
and the Bramins, entering their protest against 
the claims of the Jews and the Parsees, ex- 
claimed : " Who are these upstart and almost 
unknown people, these arrogant monopolizers 
and pretenders, who thus hold themselves up 
as the founders of nations, and the sole depo- 
sitaries of their archives ? To hear their cal- 
culations of five or six thousand years, one 
would suppose that the world was but of yes- 
terday, whereas our chronicles prove a dura- 
tion of many thousands of ages. And by what 
right are their books to be considered as pre- 
ferable to ours? Are the Vedes, the Chastres^ 
and the Pourans, inferior to the Bible, the Zen d~ 
avesfa, ^and the Sad-der (g 3.) ? Is not the testi- 
mony of our progenitors and of our Gods of 
equal Talue with that of the Gods and proge- 
fuitors of -the Occidentalists ? O that we wera? 



CONTRADICTIONS. ]75 

permitted to reveal to profane nations the 
mysteries of our religion, were we not strictly 
bound to throw a sacred and impenetrable veil 
over our doctrine, so as to conceal it from the 
prying inquisitiveness of every unhallowed 
eye !".... 

And here the Bramins, on uttering these 
words, fell into an abrupt and profound si- 
lence : — " How can we pretend to admit your 
doctrine," said the legislators, " if you refuse 
to make it known ? And how did its first insti- 
tutors propagate it, when, in consequence of 
the knowledge of it being exclusively and 
solely vested in themselves, their own people 
Became profane in their eyes ? Has heaven 
revealed it, in order that the revelation might 
become an incommunicable secret ?" 

The Bramins, however, still continuing mute, 
and refusing to assign any reason whatever 
for their taciturnity; — "No matter," said a 
European, " we can very well afford to let 
them enjoy the honour of their own secret, the 
concealment of which is now no better than 
an empty form, since their sacred books are 
in our hands, and the whole doctrine publicly 
divulged : a summary of which I will take the 
liberty of laying before you." 

Then, beginning with an abstract of the four 
Vedes, the eighteen Portraits, and five or six of 
the Chastres, he mentioned how an immaterial* 
infinite, eternal, and round Being, after having 
passed a whole eternity of time in self-contempla- 
tion, becoming at length desirous of manifest- 
ing himself, separated the male and female fa- 
mltiesj which existed within himself, and §pe#~ 



176 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

formed an act of generation, of which the Lin- 
gam remains as an emblem : how from this 
first act sprung three divine powers, bearing 
the names of Brama, Bichen or Vichenou, and 
Chib or Chiven (h 3.) ; the office of the first of 
which was to create, of the second to preserve, 
of the third to destroy or change the forms of 
the universe. He next gave an historical de- 
tail of their operations and personal adven- 
tures, and related how Brama, proud of having 
created the world and the eight Bobouns (or 
spheres) of probation, and of being preferred tcN 
his equal Chib, gave rise by his pride to a con- 
flict betwixt them, in which the globes or celes^ 
tial orbes were broken to pieces, as if they had been 
a basket of eggs : how Brama, subdued in this 
contest, was forced to serve as a pedestal to 
Chib, metamorphosed into the Lingam : how 
Vichenou, the mediatorial 'God, had at different 
periods, assumed nine animal and mortal 
forms for the preservation of the world; how 
first, under that of a fish, he saved a family^ 
from the universal deluge, by which the earth- 
was re-peopled : how afterwards, under the* 
form of a tortoise (i 3.) he brought out from the 
sea of milk the mountain Mandreguiri (the 
Pole ;) then, under that of a wild boar, lace- 
rated and tore to pieces the bowels of the gi- 
ant Erenniachessen, by whom the earth had 
been sunk in the abyss of Djole, from which r 
in his own defence, he restored it; how he 
became incarnate under the form of the Black 
Shepherd, and under the name of Chris-en, and 
delivered the world of the venomous serpent Ca*- 



CONTRADICTIONS. 177 

lengam, whose head he at last crushed, after hav- 
ing himself been bit in the foot. 

Passing on, in the next place, to the history 
of the subaltern ov secondary Genii, he recount- 
ed to the assembly how the Eternal, for the dis- 
play of his glory, had created divers orders of 
r^c^.who were officially delegated to sing his 
praises and to have the direction of the uni- 
verse : how a part of these angels had revolt- 
ed under the command of an ambitious chief, 
who wished to usurp the power of God, and to 
take the whole reins of government into his 
own hands : how God precipitated them into 
the world of darkness, there to suffer punish- 
ment for their misdeeds; how at last, moved 
with compassion, he consented to rescue them 
from thence, and to receive them again into 
his good graces after they had been previous- 
ly tried by a long course of probation : how, 
for this purpose, having created fifteen orbs or 
planetary regions, and bodies to inhabit them, 
he obliged these rebellious angels to undergo 
eighty-seven transmigrations : how the souls, thus 
purified, returned back to their -primitive source, 
to the ocean of life and animation, from which 
they had emanated : how, since all living be- 
ings contained a portion of this universal soul^ 
it became an act superlatively culpable to de- 
prive them of it. Lastly, he proceeded tode- 
velope ihe rites and ceremonies of this religion, 
when, speaking of offerings and libations of milk 
and of butter to Gods of ivood and of brass, and of 
purifications with the dung and urine of the cow, 
he was interrupted by an universal murmur, 



178 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

mixed with loud bursts of laughter, which 
broke off the thread of his narrative. 

And each of the different groupes began to 
pass their judgment upon this system. " They 
are idolaters," said the Mussulmen, " and it is 
our religious duty to exterminate them." .... 
" They are beside themselves, poor crea- 
tures," said the followers of Confucius, " and 
it is our duty to endeavour to cure them." . . , 
" What charming Gods," cried others again, 
" what a droll and pleasant set of besmoked, 
greasy-looking jackanapeses, which they wash 
like little babies that have befouled them- 
selves, and from which they are obliged to 
drive away the flies, that come to pay their 
sw r eet-toothed devotions to the honey, and to 
deposit their excrementitious oblations upon 
them !" 

At these words a Bramin, bursting with in- 
dignation, furiouf-iy exclaimed : " These are 
inscrutable and profound mysteries, emble- 
matical of truths, which you are unworthy to 
know" 

" And how comes it," replied a Lama of 
Thibet, u that you are more worthy to know 
them than ourselves? Is it because you pre- 
tend to be sprung from the head of Brama, while 
you leave the rest of mankind to derive their 
origin from the less noble parts of his body ? 
If you mean to support the pride of your boast- 
ed extraction, and the distinctions of your 
casts, prove to us first, that you are a different 
order of human beings from ourselves. And, 
in the next place, prove the existence of the 
allegories, which you talk so much of, by tra- 



CONTRADICTIONS. 179 

cing them historically to their source; in a 
word, prove to us, that you are the genuine 
founders of the whole of this system: for, we 
will take upon us to prove, were it at all ne- 
cessary, that you are no more than plagiaries 
and corrupters of it ; that you have borrowed 
the ancient paganism of the western world, 
and blended it, by a strange jumble of things, 
with the purely spiritual doctrine of our God, 
(Jc 3 ;) a doctrine which stoops not to address 
itself to the senses, from which it is totally 
prescinded, and which was perfectly unknown 
to the world until the mission of Beddou" 

And instantly voices without number called 
out to be informed of the nature of this doc- 
trine, and of this God, with whose very name 
the majority of them were wholly unacquaint- 
ed. In compliance, therefore, with their in- 
junction, the Lama thus commenced his reci- 
tal: 

" In the beginning" said he, " there was one 
God, self-existent, who, after passing a whole 
eternity absorbed in the contemplation of his 
own essence, determined at length to mani- 
fest his perfections extraneously without him- 
self, and accordingly created the matter of 
the world. The four elements being produced, 
but as yet in a state of discordant confusion; 
He breathed upon the face of the waters, and they 
immediately became an immense bubble of the 
shape of an egg, which, when complete, be- 
came the vault or spherical frame of heaven, in 
which the world is inclosed (/ 3.) Having made 
the earth and the bodies of different beings, this 
^God, the essence of motion^ imparted to them a 



180 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

portion of his own divine nature or substance, in 
order to vitalize and animate them. Thus the 
sonl of every living thing, being only a frac- 
tional part of the universal soul, is never annihi- 
lated, never perishes, but merely changes its form 
and mould by passing successively into different 
bodies. But of all forms, that of man is most 
pleasing to the Deity, as approaching the 
nearest to his divine perfections. When a 
man, by withdrawing and totally divorcing 
his mind from the senses, becomes absorbed in 
the contemplation of himself, he begins to disco- 
ver the Divinity, that resides within him, and, 
in fact, becomes himself the Divinity. Thus 
is God incessantly rendering himself incarnate ; 
but his greatest and most solemn incarnation 
was that in which he appeared three thousand 
years ago in Kachemire, under the name of 
Fot or Beddou, for the purpose of teaching the 
doctrine of annihilation and renunciation of self" 
And the Lama then proceeded to give the his- 
tory of Fot, observing that he had sprung 
from the right side of a virgin of the royal 
blood, who, by becoming a mother, did not 
however cease to be a virgin : that jthe king 
of the country, uneasy and chagrined at his 
birth, was anxious to put him to death, chid accord- 
ingly caused cdl the males, who were born at the 
same period, to be massacred: that, being saved 
by shepherds, Beddou spent his life in the de- 
sert till the age of thirty years, at which time he be- 
gan his mission to enlighten mankind, and to 
deliver them from demons ; that he performed a 
multitude of the most astonishing miracles, 
spent his life in fasting and the severest raor- 



CONTRADICTIONS. 181 

tifications, and at his death bequeathed to his 
disciples the volume in which the doctrinal 
principles of his religion are contained. The 
Lama then began to read — 

" He that forsaketh his father and his mo- 
ther to follow me," says Fot f " shall become a 
perfect Samanean (a heavenly man.) 

" He that keepeth my precepts to the fourth 
degree of perfection, shall acquire the power 
of flying in the air, of moving heaven and 
earth, of prolonging or shortening his exist- 
ence, (of rising again.) 

" The Samanean renounces the possession 
of riches, and restricts himself to the bare use 
of such things only as are indispensably ne- 
cessary. He mortifies his body, stifles his 
passions, covets nothing, attaches his affec- 
tions to nothing, meditates incessantly upon 
my doctrine, endures injuries with patience, 
and bears no enmity against his neighbour. 

" Heaven and earth" says F6t, " shall perish ; 
despise, therefore, your bodies which are com- 
posed of the i bur perishable elements, and think 
only of your immortal souls. 

" Listen not to the solicitations of the flesh ; 
apprehension and sorrow are the product of 
the passions : smother the passions, and ap- 
prehension and sorrow will become extinct. 

" Whosoever dies," says F6t, " without hav- 
ing embraced my doctrine, shall return again 
upon the earth, until he shall practise it." 

The Lama was going on with his citations, 
when he was interrupted by the Christians, 
who insisted that this was no other than their 
own religion altered and disguised under a 



182 PROBLEM OP RELIGIOUS 

different dress ; that Fot was Jesus himself dis- 
figured, and that the Lamas were nothing more 
than a bastard and degenerate set of Nesto- 
rians and Manicheans masked under another 
name. 

But the Lama, (m 3.) supported by all the 
Chamans, Bonzes, Gonitis, Talapoins of Siam, of 
Ceylon, of Japan, and of China, demonstrated 
to the Christians from the writings of their 
own authors, that the doctrine of the Samane- 
ans was known through the East upwards of 
a thousand years before Christianity existed ; 
that their name was cited previous to the 
reign of Alexander, and that the mention of 
Boutia, or Beddou, was anterior to that of Je- 
sus — " And now," said they, retorting upon the 
Christians, " do you prove to us in your turn 
that you are not yourselves degenerated Sama- 
neans, and that the man whom you consider as 
the institutor of your sect is not Fot himself un- 
der a different garb. Demonstrate his exist- 
ence by positive historical documents of the 
same date with those which we have noticed, 
Cn 3 ;) for, as there appears to us to be no os- 
tensible and authentic testimony on record to 
found our belief upon, we feel ourselves, on 
that ground, morally necessitated to deny it 
in the most unequivocal and formal terms; 
and we moreover maintain, on the contrary, 
that your gospels are taken from the books of 
the Mythriacs of Persia, and those of the Esse- 
nians of Syria, who were themselves only re- 
formed Samaneans" (o 3.) 

These words excited a oreneral outcry on 
the part of the Christians, and a fresh dispute 



CONTRADICTIONS. 183 

of a still more violent and serious nature was 
on the point of breaking out, when a groupe 
of Chinese Chamans, and Talapoins of Siam 
came forward, assuring them that they could 
readily adjust every difference, and produce 
a general harmony of opinion in the whole bo- 
dy. And one of them, addressing the assem- 
bly, said : " It is high time we should put an 
end to all these frivolous altercations, by 
drawing aside the veil which conceals from 
your view the interior and secret doctrine which 
Fot himself, on his death- bed, revealed to his 
disciples (p 3.) 

" AH these theological opinions," said he, 
" are mere fables ; all these stories of the at- 
tributes, actions, and life of the Gods, are no- 
thing more than allegories and mythological 
emblems, invented to convey, under a pleas- 
ing mask, ingenious moral sentiments, and the 
knowledge of the operations of nature in the 
action of the elements and the revolutions of 
the planets. 

« In fact, the whole is in amount nothing 
more, strictly speaking, than mere illusion, vi- 
sion, and romance; the moral metempsychosis is 
no more than a figurative sense of the physical 
metempsychosis, or the transition of that succes- 
sive moving power whereby the component ele- 
ments of a body, which never perish, migrate 
or pass, after the body itself is dissolved, into 
other mediums, and again form new combina- 
tions. The soul is merely the principle of vita- 
lity resulting from the properties of matter and 
the activity of the elements in bodies, where- 
in they create a spontaneous movement. To 



1 



184 PROBLEM OP RELIGIOUS 



suppose this effect of the active organs, which 
is coeval with them, which is co-developed 
with them, and which sleeps when they sleep, 
to survive and separately subsist when orga- 
nization or mechanism is no more, is one of 
the fictions of a prolific but perverted imagi- 
nation, which, however plausible and capti- 
vating, however delicious and enchanting to 
the fancy, is but an empty dream in reality, 
God himself is nothing more than the great mo- 
ver, the occult power diffused through all things 
that have being, the sum or aggregate of their laws 
and their properties , the animating principle, in a 
word, the soul of the universe; which, by rea- 
son of the infinite diversity of its relations and 
operations, considered sometimes as simple, 
and sometimes as multiple, sometimes as active 
and sometimes as passive, has ever presented 
to the human mind an insoluble enigma. 
What the understanding is capable of com- 
prehending with the greatest perspecuity is, 
that matter does not perish, that it possesses es- 
sential properties, by which the whole oecono- 
my of the world is governed analogous to that 
of a living and organized being; that the 
knowledge of its laws relatively to man is what 
constitutes his wisdom ; that in the observance 
of them consist virtue and merit ; and evil, sin 
and vice, in the ignorance and violation of them : 
that happiness and misfortune are the result of 
such observance or neglect pursuant to the same 
law 7 of necessity by which light bodies ascend and 
heavy ones fall., and to a fatality of causes and 
effects, the chain of which extends in an un- 
interrupted series of links from the most mi- 



CONTRADICTIONS. 185 

nute atom to stars of the greatest distance and 
magnitude." (q 3.) 

No sooner had he uttered these words, than 
a crowd of Theologians of other sects instant- 
ly exclaimed, that this doctrine was rank ma- 
terialism, and those who professed it, impious 
Atheists, enemies both of God and man, who ought 
to be destroyed and weeded out from the face 
of the earth. — " A very pious and summary 
mode of proceeding truly !" said the Cha- 
mans : " but even supposing that we are mis- 
taken, which indeed is by no means impossi- 
ble, since it is one of the leading characteristics 
of the human mind to be fallible, — yet, what right 
have you to deprive human beings like yourselves 
of the life which God has given them? If hea- 
ven considers as as so very criminal, and looks upon 
us with an eye of horror, why does it dispense 
to us the self-same blessings as to you ? If it 
treats us with perfect toleration, what right 
have you to be less indulgent? Ye religions 
men, who speak of God with so much confi- 
dence and certainty, condescend to tell us 
what he is; teach us how to comprehend 
those abstract and metaphysical beings which 
you call God and soul— substance without matter r 
existence without body, life without organs or sen- 
sationsv If ye have cognizance of these be- 
ings by means of your corporeal senses, or by 
their operation in reflection, render them in 
like manner cognizable to us. But, if ye speak 
of them merely upon testimony and tradition, 
produce your credentials regularly authenti- 
cated, and establish our faith, by a clear and 
explicit recital of facts, upon the same con>- 



Q 



9, 



an 



]86 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS 

raon ground of evidence and conviction with 
jour own. 5 ' 

There now arose a warm and general con- 
troversy between the Theologians respecting 
God and his divine nature, his mode of acting and 
manifesting himself the nature of the soul and its 
union ivith the body ; whether it has existence prio r 
to the organs, or from the period of their formation 
only ; concerning a future state and another world ; 
and every School, every sect, every individu- 
al, differing more or less on all these points, 
and supporting the motives of their dissent by 
plausible arguments, and by respectable but 
opposite authorities, became universally be- 
wildered in an inextricable maze of contra- 
dictions. 

At length the legislators, having proclaim- 
ed silence, and recalling their attention to the 
original object of discussion, thus addressed 
them :— " Leaders and instructors of nations, 
the great motive for which you first assem- 
bled together was the investigation of truth; 
and every one of you, confident at the outset 
in his own infallibility, expected the minds of 
the rest to bow implicit assent to the transcen- 
dent rectitude of his creed : but, soon after 
tinding opinions to clash and run counter to 
each other, you felt the absolute necessity of 
submitting them to some common test of com- 
parison, some regular standard or criterion of 
evidence; and it was accordingly agreed, that 
all should come forward and severally exhibit 
the proofs and grounds of their respective 
faith. A series of facts were therefore addu- 
ced with that view, and strenuously defended 



CONTRADICTIONS. 



187 



by the advocates of each party; but every re- 
ligion, every sect boasting its miracles and its 
martyrs, and all equally producing authorities 
in vindication of their own, and offering to sa- 
crifice their lives in order to evince their 
truth, the balance seemed to preponderate in 
favour of no particular party more than ano- 
ther on that score, 

" Ye proceeded, in the next place, to sub- 
mit your doctrines to the scrutiny of reason ; — 
but, since the self-same testimony was alledg- 
ed in proof of opposite tenets ; since asser- 
tions were advanced and combated by the 
same kind of gratuitous assumptions, and 
since both the affirmative and negative side 
of every question of faith was equally contest- 
ed and denied by the same common right of objec- 
tion, nothing of course was eventually demon- 
strated. A still further consequence that 
arose from thus confronting your systems, was, 
that, notwithstanding they exhibited an ex- 
treme disparity of feature in a great many 
points, their resemblance to each other in the 
general ground of the picture was not less 
striking. Hence arose another perplexing 
embarrassment respecting the originality of 
your different scriptural codes. Accordingly, 
each party insisted on its own sect being the 
sole patentees and genuine promulgators of 
the primitive and orthodox faith, to whom the 
sacred deposit had been first given in charge, 
and taxed the rest with heterodoxy, adulteration, 
and plagiarism ; and this again led to the in- 
tricate question, how the various notions ofrelz- 



188 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS, &C 

gion had been handed down and transmitted from 
people to people. 

" But your difficulties increased in a com- 
pound proportion, when you came to unravel 
and trace out the successive progression and 
historical meanderings of these religious no- 
tions. The farther you advanced, the more 
you became enveloped in darkness and per- 
plexity; and, after all your most sanguine and 
elaborate researches, you found that you were 
only grasping at a shadow, that they rested 
on a basis totally inaccessible to the senses, 
and that there was, of consequence, no possi- 
ble mode of judging or framing an opinion up- 
on the subject. Thus, foiled in your enqui- 
ries, you were driven to the unavoidable ne- 
cessity of owning, that, in asserting them as 
undoubted matters of fact, you were no more 
than the mere echo of your forefathers. Ano- 
ther important question then presented itself 
to your notice, — -hoiv your forefathers came at the 
knowledge of them^who had themselves no other 
faculties or means of becoming acquainted 
with them than yourselves. But, as the regu- 
lar succession of theological ideas, as well as their 
origin and manner of existence in the human 
understanding were equally mysterious, the 
whole mechanism of your religious opinions 
became a complicated problem of metaphysi- 
cal subtilty and historical research. 

" But, since these opinions, however extra- 
ordinary they may be, have notwithstanding 
some origin, as indeed all ideas, even the most 
abstract and fantastical, have in nature some 
physical model, we must use our best efforts 



ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY, &C. 189 

in order to discover that origin, and what that 
model is ; in short, we must inform ourselves 
how the understanding came by these ideas 
of God, the soul, and immaterial beings, that are 
so abstruse and obscure, and which form the 
basis of so many religious systems ; and we 
must accordingly labour to trace out their li- 
neal descent, and the periodical alterations they 
have undergone in their successive progress 
and ramifications during the lapse of ages. If 
therefore there can be found in this assembly 
persons who have made these objects their 
peculiar study, let them come forward and en- 
deavour, in the face of the world, to dispel 
the gloom of opinions, by which the intellec- 
tual horizon has for so long a period been 
overcast." 



CHAR XXII. 

ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 

No sooner had the legislators made this 
proposal, than a new groupe, formed of per- 
sons from different standards, but not desig- 
nated by any of its own, advanced within the 
circle; one of the members of which thus 
spoke in behalf of the rest: 

" Legislators, friends of evidence and of 
truth ! — It is not at all astonishing, that the 
subject, which we have jointly undertaken to 
investigate, should be involved in such a cloud 
of darkness and obscurity, when we reflect, 
that, exclusive of the difficulties naturally at- 



190 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

tending such a discussion, the mind, fettered 
arid chained down by the oppressive restraints 
and despotical intolerance of every religious 
system, has not to this hour been able to give 
free scope and utterance to its thoughts, or to 
enjoy the virtuous privilege of liberal enquiry. 
But, since it has at length recovered its free- 
dom and natural elasticity, and can speak the 
ingenuous language of its own feelings with- 
out fear or reflection, we will, now that our 
duty beckons us to fulfil the object of your 
request, publicly submit to your candid and 
impartial consideration, and to that of the 
world at large, what a long and laborious 
course of study has suggested as most rational 
in the solution of this intricate problem to 
minds not blinded or warped by the bias of 
prejudice : and we shall do this, not with the 
pretension of controlling your opinions by im- 
posing our own as a dictatorial creed, but 
merely with the view of putting the minds of 
others in motion, who are capable of illumi- 
nating the subject by a greater accession of 
light. 

" To you, ye religious guides and precep- 
tors of nations, to you it is well known, in 
what profound obscurity the nature, origin, 
and history of the doctrines you teach are en- 
veloped. Imposed by force and authority, in- 
culcated by education, and maintained by the 
influence of example, they have been perpe- 
tuated from age to age, while habit and 
thoughtless inattention have rivetted and giv- 
en stability to their sway. But, if man, en- 
lightened by experience and reflection, will 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 19) 

only look back arid carefully examine into the 
prejudices of his infancy, he will not fail to dis- 
cover a multiplicity of revolting incongruities 
arid contradictions, which will awaken his 
sagacity, and call forth the exertion of his rea- 
soning powers. 

" Recurring, in the first place, to the diversi- 
ty and opposition observable in the articles of 
faith adopted by different nations, his mind 
becomes callous to all their rival claims to in- 
fallibility, and, arming itself with the infer- 
ences deducible from the reciprocal preten- 
sions of the contending antagonists, is impel- 
led, with all the mental force and hardihood 
of rational conviction, to conclude, that the 
senses and the understanding em/mating directly 
from God are a lavj not lese sacred and a guide 
not less sure than the indirect and contradictory 
codes of prophets. (r3.j 

M When he comes, in the next place, to push 
his researches into the structure and conUx- 
ture of these codes themselves, he finds that the 
laws which are reputed divine, that is, immuta- 
ble and eternal, originate from the circumstances 
of times, of places, and of persons; that they 
derive one from another in a kind of genealo- 
gical order, in as much as they all mutually 
borrow their fundamental principles from the 
same relative and common stock of ioVas, 
which the founders of thern have modified 
every one according to his own fancy. 

" Again, when he attempts to trace these 
ideas to their source, he finds that thev lose 
themselves in the night, of time, in the infancy 
of nations, even as far back as the origin of the 



1 92 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

world, with which they claim a connection ; 
where, buried in the gloomy darkness of cha- 
os and the fabulous empire of tradition, they 
present themselves to his notice accompanied 
with circumstances of so wonderful a com- 
plexion, and so strikingly repugnant to the 
ordinary course of things, that they seem to 
set human comprehension at defiance. These 
very circumstances themselves shed, however, 
a ray of light upon the mind, when it first be- 
gins to reason upon them, which tends to elu- 
cidate and resolve the difficulty : for, if the 
wonderful and miraculous events, which we 
find mentioned in systems of religion, have, ac- 
tually taken place; if, for example, the meta- 
morphoses, the apparitions, and the conver- 
sations of one or a plurality of Gods, as re- 
corded in the sacred books of the Hindoos, the 
Hebrews, and the Parsees, be real historical 
truths, it follows as a necessary consequence, 
that nature at that period was perfectly differ- 
ent from the nature we are at present ac- 
quainted with; that the people of modern 
days do not resemble those of the primeval 
world, and that they have no occasion, there- 
fore, to trouble their heads further about 
them. 

" On the contrary, if these miraculous oc- 
currences have never had any real existence 
in nature, then we must, of course, regard 
them in no other point of view, than as the 
mere creatures or fabrications of the human 
mind itself: and, in as much as our own ex- 
perience convinces us, that the mind is still, 
at this day, capable of producing the most 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 193 

fantastic combinations, this very fact itself, 
serves at once to account for the appearance 
of such monstrous phcenomena in history. The 
only difficulty then is to ascertain how and 
for what purpose these antique productions 
of the imagination were originally formed. — 
Now, if we examine with minute attention the 
subjects they pourtray, if we analyse the ideas 
which they combine and associate, and accu- 
rately weigh all the circumstances to which 
they allude, we shall be enabled to come at 
an explanation of these incredible incidents 
perfectly conformable to the laws of nature. 
By this process it will be found, that these re- 
citals, which have so fabulous an aspect, pos- 
sess a figurative meaning different from their 
apparent one; that the facts, which are thought 
to partake so much of the marvellous, are 
events of a very simple and physical nature, 
but, by their being either lamely understood 
or lamely represented, have become disfigur- 
ed, owing to accidental causes arising from 
the very nature of the human mind, to the 
confusion of signs symbolically employed to 
represent the objects, to the indeterminate 
meaning of words, and to the defects of oral 
and the imperfection of written language. It 
will be found, for instance, that those Gods 
that have such singular offices assigned them 
in all these systems, are nothing but the physi- 
cal powers of nature, the elements, the winds, the 
stars, and meteors, that have been personified by 
the necessary mechanism of language and of 
the understanding; — that their life, their man- 
ners, and their actions, are nothing more than 

R 



194 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

the divers operations and relations of these, and 
that the whole of their pretended history, is 
nothing more than a description of their vari- 
ous phoenomena, drawn by the first naturalists 
who observed them, but taken in a contrary 
sense by the vulgar who did not understand 
it, or by succeeding generations who forgot it. 
in a word, it will be discovered, that all the 
theological notions respecting the origin of the 
world, the nature of God, the revelation of his 
laws, and the manifestation of his person, are 
merely recitals of astronomical facts, figura- 
live and emblematical narratives of the mo- 
tion and influence of the heavenly bodies : and 
it will be thus convincingly seen, that the very 
idea of ike Divinity, at present so obscure, ab- 
stracted, and metaphysical, was, according to 
its primitive model, merely that of the powers 
of the material universe, considered sometimes 
analytically, as they appear in their agents 
and their phoenomena, and sometimes synthe- 
tically, as forming one whole, and exhibiting 
an harmonious relation in all its parts: and 
this investigation will shew, that the name God 
has been bestowed sometimes upon the wind, 
fire, water, and the whole of the elements ; 
sometimes upon the sun, the stars, the planets, 
and their influences; sometimes upon the -uni- 
verse at large, or the component mass of visible na- 
ture ; sometimes upon abstract and metaphy- 
sical qualities, such as space, duration, motion, and 
intelligence, and altogether with this result, that 
the idea of a Deity has not originated from the 
miraculous revelation of invisible beings, but has 
been the natural production of the human mind if- 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS, 195 

self, the progress and revolutions of which in 
the knowledge of the visible universe and its 
material agents it has constantly and uniform- 
ly followed. 

" Yes, in vain do nations refer the origin of 
their religion to heavenly inspiration : in vain 
do their dogmas plead a supernatural com- 
mencement of things: the original barbarism: 
of the human race, attested by their own mo- 
numents (5 3.), belies at once all their asser- 
tions : and, what is more, an existing and ir- 
resistible fact bears a victorious testimony 
against the dubious and uncertain facts of past 
times : for since man receives no ideas but through 
the medium of his senses (t 3.), it evidently fol- 
lows, that every notion, attributed to any oth- 
er- origin- than that of sensation and experience, 
is an erroneous hypothesis invented at some 
period posterior to that of the pretended 
events. But, indeed, we need only take a 
very cursory view of the different religious 
systems relating to the origin of the world and 
the action of the Gods, to discover at everv 
turn, both in the ideas and the language, an 
anticipation of a state of things, which had no 
existence till a long time subsequent to the 
period supposed. Hence, fortified and ren- 
dered impregnable by all these contradic- 
tions, reason, at once discarding every thing 
which has to step beyond nature for its proof, 
and regarding every historical system as inad- 
raissibly bad, which militates against proba- 
bility, establishes its own, and says with con- 
fidence : 

44 Before any nation received dogmas alrea- 



J96 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

dy invented from another nation ; before one 
generation inherited the ideas of a preceding 
generation, none of these complicated systems 
had existence. The first human beings, the 
simple children of nature, antecedent to eve- 
ry event, being entire strangers to every spe- 
cies of knowledge, were born without any idea 
of those articles of faith which are the result 
of scholastic disputation : of those religious 
rites, founded on arts and usages which had 
as yet no existence ; of those precepts, which 
suppose the pre-developement of the passions; 
of those codes of law, which suppose a lan- 
guage and a social system not then in being; 
of that Got/, the whole of whose attributes im- 
ply a previous knowledge of physical objects, 
and the very idea of whose actions is suggest- 
ed by the experience of a despotical form of 
government ; or, in fine, of that soul and all 
those metaphysical or spiritual existences, 
which we are told are not the object of the 
senses, but which, however, we must forever 
have remained unacquainted with, if our un- 
derstanding had not gained intelligence of 
them by the perceptive feelings or sensations 
of our organs (u 3.) Before it could arrive at 
till these notions, an immense series of preli- 
minary facts and results, must have been pro- 
gressively traced and explored. Man, origi- 
nally in a savage state, must have learned 
from slow and repeated trials the scientific use 
of his organs. Successive generations must 
have invented, multiplied, and refined upon 
the means of subsistence; and the understand- 
ing, disengaged from attending to the first 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 197 

wants of nature, must have risen to the com- 
plicated art of comparing ideas, digesting 
reasonings, and seizing upon abstract simili- 
tudes." 

Sect. I. Origin of the idea of God : Worship of 
the elements and physical powers of nature. 

" It was not till after having surmounted 
these obstacles, and run a long career in the 
night of history, that man, reflecting on his 
own condition, began to perceive himself ia 
subjection to powers superior to his own and 
independent of his wilt The sun gave him light 
and warmth; fire burned, thunder terrified, 
water drowned, the winds buffetted him ; all 
beings acted upon him in a powerful manner 
not to he resisted. For a long time, an automa- 
ton or mere animal-machine, he remained pas- 
sive to this action, without ever enquiring in- 
to the cause of it; but the moment he began 
to be prompted by the feeling of desire to ac- 
count to himself for it, he was electrified with 
astonishment; and, passing from *<he surprise 
of the first impulse of thought to the reverie of 
curiosity, he formed a series of inferences. 

" At first, on considering the action of the 
elements upon him, he conceived, relatively 
to himself, an idea of weakness, of subjection, and, 
relatively to them, an idea of power, of domina- 
tion; and this idea of power was the primitive 
and fundamental type of all his conceptions of 
the Divinity. 

" The action of natural bodies, in the se- 
cond place, excited in him sensations of plea- 

r 2 



198 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

sure or pain, of good or evil. Asa natural con- 
sequence of his organization, he became af- 
fected with love or aversion towards them, he 
desired or dreaded their presence; and thus 
fear or hope became the origin of every idea 
of religion. 

" Afterwards, judging of every thing by com- 
parison, and remarking in those beings a spon- 
taneous motion analagous to his own, he sup- 
posed a will, an intelligence to be connected 
with that motion, similar to what he felt exist- 
ing in himself; and hence he was led, by in- 
duction, to a further conclusion. — Having 
found by experience that certain modes of be- 
haviour towards his fellow-creatures, wrought 
a change in their affections and influenced 
their conduct, he had recourse to the same 
modes of behaviour in order to influence the 
pQiverful beings of the universe. — When my fel- 
low-being, of superior strength," said he to 
himself, " is disposed to injure me, I humble 
myself before him, and my prayer has the 
knack of appeasing him. I will therefore pray 
to the powsrful beings that assail me : — I will 
supplicate the intelligences of the winds, of 
the planets, of the waters, and they will under- 
stand me. I will conjure them to avert the ca- 
lamities, and to grant me the blessings which 
are at their disposal : — I will work upon their 
feelings by my tears, and win their compassion 
by my gifts and offerings, and by this means I 
shall be enabled to enjoy the benefit of a comfort- 
able existence." 

64 Thus man, in the native simplicity of his 
heart during the infancy of his reason, held 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 199 

converse with the sum and moon, fancifully 
gifted the great agents of nature with an un- 
derstanding and passions like his own ; and 
thought by empty sounds and useless services 
to change their inflexible laws. Fatal error ! 
He desired that the water should ascend, the 
mountains be removed, the stone mount in the 
air; and, superadding a fictitious to a real 
world, he created in his own imagination ghost- 
ly phantoms of belief , to be the scare-crows of 
his mind and the torment of the human race. 

o 3 -) . 

" Thus, the ideas of God and of religion 
sprung, like all others, from physical objects, 
and were produced in the mind of man by his 
sensations, his wants, the circumstances of his 
life, and the progressive state of his know r - 
ledge. 

" But, as these ideas of the Divinity had all 
the divers orders of natural beings for their 
prototypes or first models, the divinity was in 
consequence as various and manifold original- 
ly, as the forms under which He seemed to 
act. — Each being was a Power, a Genius ; and 
thus the first men fancied the universe crowd- 
ed with Gods without number. 

" Again, as the ideas of the Divinity were ac- 
tuated and modified by the affections of the hu- 
man heart, they naturally became arranged 
according to the attributes of distinction chalk- 
ed out by the sensations of pain and pleasure, 
of love and hatred. The powers of nature, 
the Gods, and the Genii were consequently 
classed into beneficent and maleficent, into good 
and evil ones ; and hence it is, that these two 



200 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

characteristic distinctions universally pervade 
every system of religion. 

" These ideas, analagous to the condition 
of their inventors, were, in principle, for a long 
time confused and gross. Wandering in woods, 
beset with wants, and destitute of resources, 
men in their savage state had no leisure to 
make tedious comparisons and draw conclu- 
sions. Experiencing more sufferings than they 
tasted enjoyments, their most habitual senti- 
ment was fear, their theology terror, their 
worship confined to certain modes of saluta- 
tion and of oblations, paid to beings whom 
they supposed to be ferocious and greedy like 
themselves. In their state of equality and in- 
dependence, no one took upon him the office of 
mediator with Gods as insubordinate and poor 
as himself No one having any superfluity to 
dispose of, there existed no parasite among 
them under the name of priest, no tribute un- 
der the name of victim, no jurisdiction under 
the name of altar; their doctrines and mo- 
rality indiscriminately confounded together, 
amounted to no more than self-preservation ; 
and their religion, merely an arbitrary idea, 
having no influence on the mutual relations 
subsisting between man and man, was only a 
vain homage paid to the visible powers of nature. 

" Such was necessarily the first origin of 
every idea of the Divinity." 

The orator then, addressing himself to the 
savage nations, said : " We appeal to you, 
who have adopted no artificial or spurious 
ideas of foreign extraction, whether you have 
ever formed to yourselves any other concep- 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 201 

tions of the Deity than those already alluded 
to ? We call you also to witness, ye learned 
theologians, whether the monuments of anti- 
quity do not all unanimously bear record to 
the same facts ?" (tv 3.) 

Sect. J I. Second System : Worship of the Stars 3 

or Sabeism. 

" But those verv monuments afterwards 

a/ 

present to us a more methodical and complex 
system, that of the worship of all the stars, 
adored at one time under their proper form, 
at another under emblems and figurative sym- 
bols. This worship, however, was also the 
effect of the knowledge of man in physics, 
and derived immediately from those causes 
which first gave rise to the social state : that 
is to say, from wants and arts of the first ne- 
cessity, which indeed may be reckoned as es- 
sential elements in the formation of society. 

" For, when men began to unite in society, 
they found it indispensably necessary to en- 
large the means of their subsistence, and con- 
sequently to apply themselves to agriculture ; 
but the practice of agriculture, of course, re- 
quired the observation and knowledge of the 
heavens (x 3.) It was absolutely requisite, 
therefore, to know the periodical return of the 
same operations of nature, of the same phoe- 
nomena in the celestial regions ; in a word, .to 
regulate the duration and succession of sea- 
sons, of months, and the year. It was neces- 
sity then, that prompted them to become ac- 
quainted with the course of the sun, which, in 



202 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

its zodiacal revolution, showed itself the first 
and supreme agent of the whole creation; 
and, in the next place, of the moon, which by 
its various aspects, periodical changes, and 
returns, dispensed and regulated the distri- 
bution of time; finally, of the stars, and even 
of the planets, which, by their appearance 
and disappearance on the horizon and noctur- 
nal hemisphere, formed the lesser divisions. 
In a word, it was necessary to establish an en- 
tire system of astronomy, to form an alma- 
nack; and the labour of this undertaking in a 
short time spontaneously gave birth to a new 
method of considering the over-ruling and go- 
verning powers. Having observed that there 
was a regular and constant correspondence 
betwixt the appearance of the heavenly bo- 
dies and that of the productions of the earth ; 
that the origin, growth and decay of every plant> 
were accompanied with the appearance, as- 
cension, and declination of the same planet, 
of the same groupe of stars; in short, that the 
languor or activity of vegetation seemed to 
depend on celestial influences, men began to con- 
ceive from this an idea of action, of power in 
those bodies over terrestrial beings; and 
hence the stars, the acknowledged dispensers 
of abundance or scarcity, became powers,. 
Genii, (y 3,) Gods, authors of good and evil. 

"As the state of society had already intro- 
duced a methodical hierarchy of ranks, em- 
ployments, and conditions, men, continuing to 
reason by comparison, transfused their newly 
acquired notions into their theology; and 
hence resulted a complicated system of gra- 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 203 

tfrl Divinitie *> in »Mfh the sun, as the 
first God, was a ,n, itary chief, a political k^ 
the moon, a y„^,hi s consort; th pbn : and 
Ihi mJrr r f S ^commands, men «m„ of he- 
the mult.tude of stars, a n^ern the W</ un- 
der Iw' a ?- P0 " U ^«r officers; so that ev- 
uer tne direction &> j 4A • 

er y individn-'" l a name ' °™ ce * aric * attri- 
butes p ^pted to its supposed relations and 
j n fL.cTnces, and even a sex derived from the 
gender of the noun by which it was appella- 
tively distinguished, (z 3.) 

" As the state of society had introduced 
certain usages and complex practices, reli- 
gious worship, leading the van, adopted simi- 
lar ones. Ceremonies, of a simple and pri- 
vate nature at first, became public and so- 
lemn ; the offerings were more rich and in 
greater number, rites more methodical; pla- 
ces of assembly, chapels, and temples were 
erected; persons were chosen to officiate in 
them : pontiffs and priests started up ; devo- 
tional forms and times were settled ; and thus 
religion became a civil act, a political tie. 
But, in this state of progressive developement t 
it altered not its first principles ; for, the idea 
of God was still the idea of physical beings, op- 
erating good or ill, that is to say, impressing 
sensations of pleasure or pain : the doctrinal 
part was the knowledge of their laws or rules 
of conduct ; piety and sin the observance or 
infringement of those laws; and morality, ap- 
pearing in all its native simplicity, was a judi- 
cious practice of all that is conducive to the pre* 



204 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

servation of existence ; to the well-being^ of the in- 
dividual and of hb fellow-creatures, (a 4 ) 
tcflfenuld" it be asked at what epoch Ih s s 3 s 
the authowth, we shall answer, supporter! by 
itself, that its^Jhe monuments oi ^tronomy 

with rertiintv to a 'nifcs can be traCG 

with ceitainty to a peA, seventeen 

thousand years (6 4.) Shou^ ' f art her be 
asked to what people or nation ifo li ^ ^ e 
attributed, we reply, that those self-sani^ « Y|0- 
numents, seconded by unanimous tradition, 
attribute it to the first tribes of Egypt. And, 
when human reason finds in that region a con- 
currence of all the physical circumstances 
calculated to give rise to it ; when it finds a 
zone in the vicinity of the tropic, equally free 
from the rains of the equator, and the fogs of 
the north (ci;) when it finds there the cen- 
tral point of the antique sphere, a salubrious 
climate, an immense yet manageable river ; a 
land fertile without art, without fatigue,— in- 
undated, without pestilential exhalations; si- 
tuate between two seas which wash the shores 
of the richest countries — it is forcibly impel- 
led to conclude, that the inhabitant of the 
JVile, inclined to agricvlture from the nature of 
his soil; to geometry, from the annual necessity 
of measuring his possessions; to commerce, 
from the facility of communication ; to astro- 
nomy, from the state of the sky ever open to 
observation, must first have passed from the 
savage to the social state, and consequently 
have attained that degree of physical and mo- 
ral knowledge appropriated to civilized man. 
" It was accordingly upon the upper shores 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 205 

of the Nile, and among a nation of a sable 
complexion, that the complex system of the 
worship of the stars, as relatively connected 
with the produce of the soil and the labours 
of agriculture, was constructed. And this 
first form of worship, characterised by the 
adoration of the stars under their natural 
forms, or their natural attributes, was a proce- 
dure of the human understanding perfectly 
simple; but, in a short time, the multiplicity 
of objects with their astrological relations, 
and their reciprocal agency, having rendered 
the ideas and the signs that represented them 
intricate and complex, a confusion ensued, 
which was as absurd in its nature, as perni- 
cious in its tendency. 

Sect. IIL Third System : Worship of Symbols, 
or Idolatry. 

"From the instant this race of agricultur- 
ists had begun to make observations on the 
stars, they found it necessary to distinguish 
the individuals and grounes one from another, 
and to assign to each a proper name, in or- 
der to make themselves, by means of this no- 
menclature, intelligible one to another. But 
a considerable difficulty here presented it- 
self; for, on the one hand, the celestial bo- 
dies, from their similarity of form, offered no 
peculiarity of character by which to denomi- 
nate them ; and, on the other hand, the po- 
verty and infant state of the language, had no 
terms to express so many new and metaphysi- 
col ideas. Necessity, however, the usual in- 

s 



206 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

centive of genius, surmounted all obstacles. 
Having remarked, that, in the annual revolu- 
tion, the renovation and periodical appear- 
ance of the productions of the earth, constant- 
ly corresponded with the rising and setting of 
certain stars, and with their position relative- 
ly to the sun, which they made the general 
rule of reference and comparison, the mind, 
by a natural mechanism, co-associated in its 
thoughts those terrestrial and celestial ob- 
jects, which had in fact a certain species of 
alliance ; and, applying to them one and the 
same sign, it gave to the stars and the group es 
it formed of them, the very identical names of 
those terrestrial objects, to which they bore 
affinity (d 4.) 

"Thus, the Ethiopian of Thebes called 
stars of inundation, or of Aquarius, those under 
which the river began to overflow;* stars of 
the ox or bull, those under which it was conve- 
nient to plough the earth; stars of the lion, 
those under which that animal, driven by 
thirst from the deserts, made his appearance 
on the banks of the Nile ; stars of the sheaf, 
or of the harvest maid, those under which the 
harvests were got in ; stars of the lamb, stars 
of the kid, those under which those valuable 
animals were brought forth ; and thus a first 
part of the difficulty was obviated. 

On the other hand, man, having remarked 
in the beings that surrounded him certain dis- 
tinctive qualities peculiar to each species, 
and having, in the first instance, derived a 
name from thence by which to designate 

*This must bave been June. See, Note (b 4.) 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 



207 



them, discovered, in the second place, an in- 
genious mode of generalizing his ideas; and, 
transferring the name already invented to ev- 
ery thing possessed of a similar or analogous 
property or agency, enriched his language 
with an inexhaustible fund of metaphors. 

44 Thus, the same Ethiopian, having observ- 
ed that the return of the inundation was con- 
stantly attended with the appearance, at that 
time, of a very beautiful star towards the 
so urce of the Nile, which seemed to warn the 
husbandman against being suddenly surprised 
by the waters, compared this action with that 
of the animal, which, by barking, gives notice 
of danger; and accordingly called this star 
the dog, the barker (Syrius.) In the same man- 
ner, he called stars of the crab those, which 
showed themselves when the sun, having 
reached the bounds of the tropic, returned 
backwards and sideways like the crab or Can- 
cer ; stars of the wild goat, those where the 
sun, being arrived at its greatest altitude, at the 
top of the horary Gnomon, imitated the action 
of that animal which delights in climbing to 
the top of the highest rocks; stars of the ba- 
lance, those w r hich, from the days and nights 
being of the same length, seemed to be in 
equipoise, like that instrument; stars of the 
scorpion, those which were visible when cer- 
tain regular winds brought a hot vapour, burn- 
ing like the poison of the scorpion. Again, he 
called by the name of rings and serpents the 
figures of the orbits described by the stars 
and planets (V4;) and such was the general 
mode of appropriating appellations to all the 



208 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

heavenly bodies, taken singly or grouped in 
clusters, according to their connection with 
rural and terrestrial operations and the rela- 
tive analogies which every nation found them 
to have with the labours of the field and the 
objects of their own soil and climate. 

" The inevitable consequences of this mode 
of proceeding was, that abject and terrestrial 
beings entered into association with the supe- 
rior and poiverful beings of the heavens; and 
this association became more and more rivet- 
ted every day by the very constitution of lan- 
guage and the mechanism of the mind. Men 
would accordingly say, by a natural meta- 
phor: — " the bull disseminates upon the earth 
the germinating seeds of fecundity (in spring,) 
and brings back abundance and the vegeta- 
tive^ creation of plants (which afford nutri- 
cious food :)— The lamb (or ram) delivers the 
heavens from the maleficent Genii of winter; he 
saves the world from the serpent (the emblem 
of the wet season,) and restores the reign of 
good, (that is, of the summer, the season of en- 
joyments :) — The scorpion pours out his venom 
upon the earth, and spreads disease and death, 
&c:— and so on of ail other effects of a simi- 
lar nature." 

>' This language, understood by every bo- 
dy, was at first attended with no inconveni- 
ence; but, in process of time, when the alma- 
nac had been regulated, the people, who had 
(hen no occasion for any further observation 
of the skies, lost sight of the motive which led 
to the adoption of these expressions; and the 
allegory of them, still remaining in full force 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 209 

in the customary intercourse of life, became a 
fatal stumbling block to the understanding 
and to reason. Habituated to join to symbols 
the ideas of their models, the mind began final- 
ly to confound them ; when those very ani- 
mals, which the imagination had raised to 
heaven, re-descended upon the earth; but, 
on their return, decked in the livery of the 
stars, they became invested with their attri- 
butes, and thereby imposed upon their own 
authors. The people then, imagining that 
they saw their Gods before them, found it a 
more easy task to offer up their prayers to 
them. They solicited the ram of their flock 
for the influence, for which they before peti- 
tioned the celestial ram ; they prayed to the 
scorpion not to pour out his venom upon Na- 
ture ; they revered the crab of the sea, the bee- 
tle or scarab of the mud, and the fish of the ri- 
ver; and thus, by a concatenated series of 
false analogies, they bewildered themselves, 
hy natural consequence, in a labyrinth of cor- 
responding absurdities. 

" Such was the origin of this antique and 
preposterous ivorship of animals ; such the train 
of ideas by which the characteristic attributes 
of the Divinity became transferred to the 
meanest of the brute creation; and thus was 
formed the vast, complicated and learned the- 
ological system, which originating on the banks 
of the Nile, and thence conveyed from coun- 
try to country by commerce, war, and con- 
quest, at length overspread all the ancient 
world; and which, modified by time, by cir- 
cumstances, and by prejudices, is still to be 

s 2 



210 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

traced among a hundred nations, and is even 
at this day the radical and secret ground of 
the theology of those, who despise and reject 

it;' 

Hearing murmurs now excited in various 
groupes. — « 'Tis true," continued the Speak- 
er, " and I repeat the assertion. Yes, people 
of Africa! hence, for example, has arisen 
among you the adoration of your Feteches, 
plants, animals, pebbles, and bits of ivood, before 
which your ancestors would never have been 
so stupidly absurd as to prostrate themselves, 
if they had not looked upon them as talismans, 
endued with the virtues of the stars. (/4.) — 
Here too, ye nations of Tartary ! here you may 
trace the- origin of your Pagods, and of the 
whole train of animals with which jour Sha- 
mans embellish their magic robes. From the 
same source likewise originate those figures of 
birds and serpents, which all the savage na- 
tions, with mystic and sacred ceremonies, im- 
print on their skin. It is in vain for you, ye 
people of India! to escape detection by screen- 
ing yourselves under a veil of mystery : the 
hawk of your God Vichenou is but one of the 
thousand emblems of the sun in Egypt, and his 
incarnations under the form of & fish, a boar, a 
(ion, and a turtle, together with all his mon- 
strous adventures, are nothing more than the 
metamorphoses of the same star, which, pass- 
ing successively through the signs of the twelve 
miimals,* was said to assume their forms, and 
feo act their astronomical parts (g 4.) Your 
hull, ye Japanese ! which breaks the egg of the 

* Of the Zodiac. 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS 21 1 

world, is merely that of the heavens, which, in 
times of yore, opened the age of the creation, the 
equinox of Spring. That same bull is the Jipis 
worshipped in Egypt, and which your ances- 
tors, ye Jewish Rabbins! adored in the idol of 
the golden calf. It is also your bull, ye Sons, of 
Zoroaster! which, sacrificed in the symbolical 
mysteries of Mithra, shed a fructifying blood for 
the world. Nor has your bull of the Apoca- 
lypse, ye Christians ! with his wings, the symbol 
of the air, any other origin: your lamb of God y 
immolated, like the bull of Mithra, for the sal- 
vation of the world, is again the self-same sun in 
the sign of the celestial ram, which, in a subse- 
quent age, opening in his turn the equinox, 
was said to rid the world of the reign of evil, 
that is to say, of the constellation of the ser- 
pent, of that large snake, the mother of winter^ 
and emblem of the Ahrimanes or Satan of the 
Persians, your institutors. Yes, in vain doe& 
your imprudent zeal consign idolaters to the 
torments of Tartarus which they have invent- 
ed : the whole ground of your system is no- 
thing more than the worship of the luminary of 
day, whose attributes you have heaped upon 
your chief personage. It is the sun, that, under 
the name of Orus, was born, like your God, in 
the winter solstice in the arms of the celestial 
virgin, and passed through a childhood of ob- 
scurity, nakedness and want, answering to the 
season of cold and frost : It is the sun too, 
which under the name of Osiris, persecuted 
by Typhon and the tyrants of the air, was put 
to death, laid in a dark sepulchre, the emblem 
of the hemisphere of winter, and which, ascend- 
ing afterwards from the inferior zone to the ver- 



212 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

tical point of the heavens, rose again from the 
dead, triumphing over the giants and the de- 
stroying angels. 

u Yes, ye murmuring priests ! ye yourselves 
wear its signs all over your bodies. Your ton- 
sure is the 'disk of the sun; your stole its Zodiac 
(h 4.) ; your rosaries the symbols of the stars 
and planets. Ye pontiffs and prelates ! your 
mitre, your crosier, your mantle, are those of 
Osiris ; and that crucifix, of which you boast 
the mystery without comprehending it, is the 
cross of Serapis, drawn by the hands of Egyp- 
tian priests on the plane of the figurative world, 
which, passing across the equinoxes and the 
tropics, became the emblem of future life and re> 
surrection, because it reached to the gates of 
ivory and horn through which the soul was to 
pass in its way to heaven."" 

Here the theologians of the different groupes 
looked with silent astonishment one at ano- 
ther, but as none of them seemed disposed to 
speak, the orator proceeded; 

" Three principal causes," continued he, 
i£ concurred in producing this confusion of 
ideas. First, the necessity, on account of the in- 
fant state of language, of making use of figurative 
expressions to depict the relations of objects ; 
which expressions, passing afterwards from a 
particular to a general, from a physical to a 
moral sense, occasioned by their equivocal 
import and synonymous terms, a multiplicity 
of misapprehensions and mistakes. 

" Thus, having at first said, that the sun sur- 
mounted and made his passage through the twelve 
animals, they afterwards supposed that he 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 213 

fought, subdued, and killed them ; and out of 
this arose the historical life of Hercules* 

" Having said that it regulated the periods 
of operations in husbandry, of seed-time, and 
of harvest; that it distributed seasons and em- 
ployments, over-ran climates, ruled over the 
earth, and the like, it was taken for a legisla- 
tive king, a conquering warrior ; and hence were 
framed the stories of Osiris, of Bacchus, and 
others of a similar description. 

" Having said that a planet entered into a 
sign, their conjunction was denominated a 
marriage, adultery, incest («4.) : having said, that 
it was hid, buried, when it was sunk below the 
horizon ; when it came again to light and re- 
gained its state of elevation, they gave it the 
epithet of risen from the dead, raised into heaven^ 
&c. 

" The second cause of confusion was the 
material figures themselves, by which thoughts 
were originally painted, and which, under the 
name of hieroglyphics, or sacred characters, were 
the first invention of the mind. Thus, to give 
notice of the inundation, and the necessity of 
preserving one's-self from it, they painted a 
boat, the vessel Jlrgo ; to express the wind, they 
painted a bird's wing ; to specify the season, 
the month, they delineated the bird of passage, 
the insect, or animal, which made its appear- 
ance at that particular period | to denote win- 
ter, they drew a hog or a serpent, which are 
fond of moist and miry places. The combination 
of these figures had also established meanings, 

# See the Memoir on the origin of the Constellations by 
Mr. Dupuis. 



214 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

and stood for words and sentences # (& 4.)— 
But, as there was nothing fixed or determi- 
nate in this sort of language, and as the num- 
ber of those figures and their combinations 
became excessive and over burdensome to 
the memory, perplexities and false interpre- 
tations were the first and obvious result. Hu- 
man ingenuity having, however, afterwards in- 
vented the more simple art of applying signs 
to sounds, of which the number is limited, and 
of painting speech instead of thoughts, hiero- 
glyphic pictures were, by the introduction of 
alphabetical writing (/ 4.) ; brought into disuse ; 
and from day to day their forgotten significa- 
tions made way for a vast variety of fallacies, 
equivocal acceptations, and mistakes. 

" Again, a third cause of confusion proceed- 
ed from the civil organization of ancient states. 
In fact, when the people began to apply them- 
selves to agriculture, the formation of the ru- 
ral calendar requiring continual astronomical 
observations, it was necessary to nominate 
particular persons, whose province it should 
be to notice the appearance and setting of 
certain stars, to give intimation of the return 
of the inundation, of particular winds and pe- 
riodical rains, and of the proper time for sow- 
ing every species of grain. These men, on ac- 
count of their services, were exempted from 
vulgar occupations, and society provided for 
their subsistence. In this situation, solely en- 
gaged in making observations, they soon be- 
came acquainted with the leading phenome- 
na of nature, and even gained an insight into 

* See the examples cited in note (k 4.) 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 215 

many of her more secret operations. They 
learned the course of the stars and the plan- 
ets; the analogy and connection which their 
various aspects, disappearance, and return 
had with the productions of the earth and the 
progress of vegetation ; the medicinal and 
nutritive properties of fruits and plants : the 
general action of the elements, and their re- 
ciprocal affinities. Now, as there were no 
means of communicating this knowledge other- 
wise than by the tedious and opp rose one of 
oral instruction, they transmitted it only to 
their friends and kindred; and hence all 
knowledge and science became concentrat- 
ed in "certain families, who, monopolizing 
within themselves this exclusive privilege 
of instruction, assumed a kind of corporate 
and separate capacity fatal to the public weal. 
By this continued succession of the same train 
of elaborate investigations and enquiries, the 
progress of knowledge, it is true, was expedi- 
ted, but, from the mystery that accompanied 
it, the people, daily involved in a thicker 
cloud of darkness, became more and more 
superstitious and enslaved. Seeing human 
beings produce certain phenomena, announce, 
as it were at will, eclipses and comets, cure 
diseases, and handle noxious serpents, they 
supposed them to have preternatural inter- 
course with celestial powers (m 4 ;) and, in or- 
der to obtain good fortune, or to have the ills 
averted which they expected from those pow- 
ers, they accordingly adopted these extraor- 
dinary personages as their mediators and inter- 
preters. And thus were established in the ve- 



216 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

ry bosom of states sacrilegious corporations of 
hypocrites and impostors, who engrossed to 
themselves every kind of power; and thus the 
priests, being at once both astronomers, divines, 
naturalists, physicians, necromancers, interpreters of 
the Gods, oracles of the people, and rivals of kings 
or their accomplices, founded, under the name 
of religion, an empire of mystery, and a monopoly 
of knowledge, which to this very hour have been 
the bane of the nations of the earth." 

On uttering these words, the priests of all 
the groupes interrupted the orator; and with 
loud vociferations accused him of impietj, ir- 
religion, and blasphemy, and would have pre- 
vented him from proceeding: but the legisla- 
tors having observed, that what he was rela- 
ting was merely a detail of historical events; 
that, if those events were false or fabricated, 
it would be an easy matter to controvert and 
prove them to be erroneous ; and, that unless 
every one were equally allowed the liberty of 
declaring his opinion, pursuant to the plan al- 
ready adhered to, it would be impossible to 
come at truth : — whereupon he was permit- 
ted to go on. 

" From all these causes," continued the 
Speaker, " and from the perpertual associa- 
tion of discordant ideas, there followed a 
strange medley of confusion in theology, mo- 
rality, and tradition. And first, because the 
stars were figuratively represented by ani- 
mals, the qualities of the brute creation, their 
passions, their sympathies, and antipathies 
were eventually transferred to the Gods, and 
supposed to be their actions. Thus, the God 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 217 

Ichneumon made war upon the God crocodile ; 
the God wolf longed to prey upon the God 
sheep ; the God stork devoured the God ser- 
pent; and hence the Deity became a most pre- 
posterous, fantastic, and. ferocious being, the idea 
of which embarrassed and confounded the 
judgment of man, and corrupted at once both 
his morals and his reason. 

44 Again, as every family, every nation, had, 
from the natural cast and tendency of their 
worship, adopted a particular star or constella- 
tion for its tutelary patron, the instinctive affec- 
tions and antipathies of the emblematical brute 
were tranferred to its votaries; and thus the 
partisans of the God dog w 7 ere enemies to those 
of the God wolf; the worshippers of the God 
hull held those in the utmost abhorrence who 
fed upon beef; and hence religion became a 
fruitful source offends and animosities, and 
the cause of the wildest frenzy and supersti- 
tion. (V* 4.) 

44 Moreover, the names of the animal stars, hav- 
ing, by the very consequence of this patronage 
been conferred on nations, countries, moun- 
tains, and rivers, those objects were accord- 
ingly taken for Gods ; and hence there arose 
a medley of geographical, historical, and my- 
thological beings, by which all tradition was 
effectually involved in confusion. 

44 Lastly, from the planetary Gods having 
been taken for men, heroes, and kings, by the 
analogy of the actions attributed to them, 
kings and heroes took, in their turn, the ac- 
tions of the Gods for their models, and be- 
came, from imitation, warlike? conquering. 



218 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

sanguinary, proud, lascivious, and indolent ; 
and thus religion consecrated the crimes of 
despots, and perverted the principles of go- 
vernments. 



Sect. IV. Fourth System : Worship of two prin- 
ciples, or Dualism. 

" Meanwhile the astronomical priests, en- 
joying in their temples peace and abundance, 
were daily making fresh progress in the sci- 
ences; and the mundane system gradually open- 
ing to their view, various hypotheses as to its 
agents and effects were successively started, 
which became so many systems of theology. 

" The navigators of the maritime nations, 
and the caravans of the Asiatic and African 
JYomades, having, in the first place, given them 
a knowledge of the earth from the Fortunate 
Islands to Serica, and from the Baltic to the 
sources of the Nile, they discovered, by a 
comparison of the phcenomena of the different 
Zones, the rotundity of the globe, which gave 
rise to a new theory. Observing that all the 
operations of Nature, during the annual peri- 
od, were resolvable into two principal ones, 
that of producing and that of destroying; that, 
upon the major part of the surface of the 
globe, the term of each of these operations 
lasted from one equinox to the other; that is 
to say, during the six summer months all was 
in a state of procreation and growth, and dur- 
ing the six winter months all was in a state 
of languor and decay, wearing the dormant 
appearance of death,— they supposed two con- 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 219 

irary powers in nature, always struggling with 
and resisting each other; and, considering 
the celestial sphere in the same view, they di- 
vided the drawings, by which they represent- 
ed it, into two equal portions or hemispheres, 
so that those constellations which appeared 
in the summer-heaven formed a direct and su- 
perior empire, and those in the winter-heaven 
an opposite and inferior one. Now, as the sum- 
mer constellations were accompanied with the 
season of long, warm, and unclouded days to- 
gether with that of fruitage and harvests, they 
were characterized as the powers of light* fe- 
cundity, and creation ; and, by transition from a 
physical to a moral sense, as Genii, angels of 
science, beneficence, purity, and virtue : — in 
like manner, as the winter constellations, 
were attended with long nights and the polar 
fogs, they were regarded as genii of darkness, 
destruction, and death ; and, by a similar 
kind of transition, as angels of wickedness, 
ignorance, sin and vice. By this mode of ar- 
rangement, heaven was divided into two do- 
minions, two factions; and the analogy of hu~ 
m^n ideas already opened a vast field for the 
excursions of imagination ; but a particular 
circumstance determined, if it did not occa- 
sion, the mistake and illusion. 

" In the projection of the celestial sphere, 
as drawn by the astronomical priests, (o 4,) 
the Zodiac and the constellations disposed in 
a circular form, presented their two equal 
portions or halves in diametrical opposition : 
the winter hemisphere, the Antipode of that of 
summer, was accordingly adverse, contrary, 



220 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OP 

opposed. These words, by a constant meta- 
phor, assumed a moral sense ; and the ad- 
verse angels and genii became rebels and ene- 
mies (p 4.) From that period the whole as- 
tronomical history of the constellations was 
converted into a political history ; and the 
heavens became a human government, where 
every thing was conducted in the same man- 
ner as upon earth. Now, as the existing states, 
for the most part despotic, had their monarchs, 
and as the sun was the apparent sovereign of 
the skies, the summer hemisphere (empire of 
light,) and its constellations (a nation of ivhite 
angels,} had for king an enlightened, intelligent, 
creative, benign God ; and, as every rebellious 
faction must have its chief, the hemisphere of 
ivinter {the subterraneous empire of gloomy dark- 
ness and melancholy,) together with its stars, (a 
nation of black angels, giants, or demons,) had, 
for leader, a maleficent Genius, whose charac- 
ter was personated by that star which was 
most remarkably distinguished and most at- 
tracted the notice of different countries. In 
Egypt it was originally the Scorpion, the first 
sign of the Zodiac after the Balance, and fo; a 
long time chief of the wintry 6igns: then it was 
the bear or the polar ass, called Typhon, that is 
to say, deluge {q 4.), on account of the rains 
by which the earth was inundated during the 
reign of that star. In Persia, at a subsequent 
period (r 4.), it was the serpent, which, under 
the name of Ahrimanes, constituted the basis 
of the system of Zoroaster ; and it is the very- 
same, Ye Christians and Jews ! that is become 
your serpent of Eve (the celestial Virgin), and 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 221 

that of the cross, in both cases the emblem of 
Satan the enemy, the great adversary of the An- 
cient of Days, celebrated by Daniel. In Syria 
it was the hog or wild boar, the enemy of Ado- 
nis, because in that country, the character sup- 
ported by the Northern hear was personated 
by the animal whose fondness for mire and 
dirt was emblematical of winter. And it is for 
this reason, Ye Sons of Moses and of Mahomet, 
that you hold this animal in abhorrence, in 
imitation of the priests of Memphis and of Bai- 
lee, who detested in him the murderer of their 
God the sun. This, Ye Indians ! is likewise 
the prototype of your Chib-en, which was here- 
tofore the Pluto of your brethren the Greeks 
and Romans; your Brarna also (the God of 
creation,) is only the Persian Ormuzd, and the 
Osiris of Egypt, whose very name expresses a 
creative power, producer of forms. And these 
Gods were worshipped in a manner analagous 
to their real or fictitious attributes ; and this 
worship, on account of the difference of these 
attributes, was divided into two distinct 
branches. In the one, the benign God receiv- 
ed a worship of joy and love; whence are de- 
rived all religious acts of a gay or gladsome 
nature (s 4.), festivals, dances, banquets, offer- 
ings of flowers, milk, honey, perfumes ; in a 
word, of every thing that delights the senses 
and the soul. In the other, the malign God, on 
the contrary, received a worship of fear and 
sadness; whence originated all religious acts 
of the dolesome kind (/ 4.), weeping, wailing, 
mourning, self-denial* blood-offerings, and 
cruel sacrifices. 

t 2 



222 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

" From the same source proceeded the di- 
vision of terrestrial beings into pure and im- 
pure, sacred or abominable, according as their 
species was found among the respective con- 
stellations of one or other of the two Gods, 
and made a part of their domains. This pro- 
duced, on the one hand, the superstitions of 
pollutions and purifications; and, on the other, 
the pretended efficacy and virtues of amulets 
and talismans. 

" You now discern," continued he, address- 
ing himself to the Hindoos, Persians, Jews, 
Christians, and Mussulmen, — " you now dis- 
cern the origin of those ideas of warring con- 
flicts and rebellion, which equally pervade your 
respective mythologies. You perceive what 
is meant by white and black angels; by the 
Cherubs and Seraphs with the head of an eagle, a 
lion, or a bull: the Deus, devils or demons with 
horns of goats f and teals of snakes ; the thrones 
and dominions, ranged in seven orders or gra- 
dations, like the seven planetary spheres; all 
these beings personating and performing the 
same characters, and partaking of the same 
attributes in the Vedas, the Bible, and the 
Zendavesta, whether their chief be Ormuzd or 
Brama, Typhon or Chib-en, Michael or Satan; 
whether their form be that of giants with an 
hundred arms and with feet of serpents, or 
that of Gods metamorphosed into lions, storks, 
bulls, and cats, as they appear in the sacred 
tales of the Greeks and Egyptians: you per- 
ceive the successive pedigree and genealogy 
of these ideas, and how, in proportion as they 
receded from their respective sources,, and as 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 223 

the mind of man became more refined, their 
rude and grosser forms assumed a more im- 
proved and polished aspect, and were reduced 
to a state less uncouth and revolting. 

" But, just as the system of two opposite 
principles or deities originated in that of sym- 
bols, which were interwoven with the whole 
of its contexture, so in like manner you will 
find a new system spring out of this, to which 
it served in its turn as a foundation and a step- 
ladder." 



Sect. V, Mystical or moral worship, or the system 
of a future state. 

" In fact, no sooner had the vulgar heard 
speak of a new heaven and another world, 
than they began to give a body to these fic- 
tions ; their imagination materialized and 
erected its own self-conceptions of these into 
a solid stage with all the concomitant imagery 
and dramatical scenes of real life : and their 
notions of geography and astronomy served to 
favour, if not to give rise to the illusion. 

" On the one hand, the Phenecian naviga- 
tors, who passed the pillars of Hercules to 
fetch the tin of Thule and the amber of the 
Baltic, related that at the extremity of the 
world, at the utmost boundary of the ocean 
(the Mediterranean,) where the sun is observ- 
ed in the countries of Asia to set, there were 
fortunate islands, the residence of an everlast- 
ing spring ; and, at a farther distance, hyper- 
borean regions, placed under the earth (rela- 
tively to the tropics,) where an eternal night 



224 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

reigned.* Out of these relations, ill under- 
stood, and no doubt confusedly stated, the im- 
agination of the people framed the Elysian 
Fields (u 4.) delightful regions situated in a 
lower world, having their heaven, their sun 
and their stars ; and Tartarus, a place of 
darkness, wet, mire, and chilling frost. Now\ 
inasmuch as mankind, inquisitive about every 
thing of which they are ignorant, and eager- 
ly desirous of a prolongation of existence, 
had already questioned themselves respecting 
what was to become of them after death ; — in- 
asmuch as they had early reasoned upon that 
principle of life which animates the body, and 
which quits it without changing the form of 
the body, and had conceived to themselves 
subtile substances, phantoms, and shades, they 
flattered themselves with the belief, that they 
should resume in the subterranean world that 
life which was too precious to lose ; and thus 
the infernal regions appeared a commodious 
place of reception for those dearly beloved 
objects which they could not prevail on them- 
selves to renounce. 

" On the other hand, the astrological and 
philosophical priests gave descriptions of 
their heavens, and constructed tables of them 
that perfectly quadrated with these fictions. 
Having, in their metaphorical language, de- 
nominated the equinoxes and solstices the 
gates of heaven or the entrances of the seasons, 
they explained the terrestrial phenomena by 
saying, that through the gate of horn (at first 
the Bull, afterwards the Ram,) and through 

* Nights of six months duration. 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 225 

that of Cancer, descended the vivifying fires 
which, in spring, gave life to vegetation ; and 
the aqueous spirits, which caused, at the sol- 
stice, the overflowing of the Nile : that through 
the gate of ivory (the Balance, originally the 
Bow or Sagittarius,) and through that of Ca- 
pricorn or the urn, the emanations or influences 
of the heavens returned to their source and 
and reascended to their origin. And the 
Milky Way, which passed through these gates 
of the solstices, seemed to them to have been 
placed there on purpose to serve as a road 
and conveyance for them (v 4.) The celes- 
tial scene farther presented, according to their 
Atlas, a river (the Nile, designated by the 
windings of the Hydra ;) together with a barge 
(the vessel Argo,) and the dog Struts, both re- 
ferring to that river, the overflowing of which 
they foreboded. These circumstances com- 
bined with the preceding ones, by supplying 
additional details, gave greater weight to the 
probability of the fiction ; and thus, to arrive 
at Tartarus or Elysium, souls were obliged to 
cross the rivers Styx and Acheron, in the boat 
of Charon the ferryman, and to pass through 
the gates of horn or ivory, which were guard- 
ed by the mastiff Cerberus. At length, the in- 
troduction of a civil practice, connected with 
all these fictions, gave full stability to them. 

" The inhabitants of Egypt having remark- 
ed that the putrefaction of dead bodies be- 
came, in their sultry climate, the source of 
pestilence and diseases, introduced in a great 
number of states, the custom of burying the 
dead, at a distance from the inhabited dis- 



226 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

tricts, in the desert situate at the West. To 
arrive there, it was necessary to cross the ca- 
nals of the river, to engage a passage in a boat 
and to pay a toll to the ferryman, otherwise the 
body, deprived of the privilege of being buri- 
ed, would have been left a prey to wild beasts. 
This custom suggested to her civil and reli- 
gious legislators a powerful means of influenc- 
ing the manners of her inhabitants ; and, 
strongly impressing on rude and uncultivated 
minds the awful duties of filial piety and reve- 
rence for the dead, they ordained, as a condi- 
tional and necessary prelude, that a formal 
process of inquisition should first be gone 
through, whereupon judgment should be 
awarded, whether the deceased merited to 
be admitted to the rank of his family in the 
dark city. Such an idea too well accorded 
with all the rest not to be incorporated with 
them; nor was it long before they became 
co-associated in the minds of the people: and 
hell had accordingly its Minos and its Rhada- 
manthus, with the wand, the bench, the tip- . 
staffs, and the urn, after the exact model of 
this worldly and civil transaction. The Di- 
vinity then became a moral and political be- 
ing, a legislator in society, the more formida- 
ble, inasmuch as this supreme law-giver, this 
final judge was inaccessible to inspection. — 
This mythological and fabulous World, com pou nd - 
ed of such strange and grotesque, such wide- 
ly scattered and discordant parts, then be- 
came a place of future punishment and re- 
ward, in which divine justice was supposed to 
correct the vices and defects of this transito- 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 227 

ry state. And this spiritual and mystical sys- 
tem acquired the more credit, as it gained the 
ascendency over mankind by falling in with 
their natural inclinations. The feeble victim 
of oppression looked thither for an indemnifi- 
cation, and consoled himself with the hope of 
future revenge : the oppressor expecting, by 
a profusion of rich offerings, to secure to him- 
self a lasting exemption from punishment here- 
after, made use at the same time of this hypo- 
thetical creed as an additional instrument of 
terror to controul and keep the vulgar in awe : 
kings and priests, the heads of the people, 
saw in it a new source of despotic power by 
reserving to themselves the exclusive privi- 
lege of dispensing the retributions and the 
chastisements of the great judge apportioned 
to the merits or demerits of human actions, 
which, however they represented and modifi- 
ed according to their own sovereign will and 
pleasure. 

" Such were the means, by which an invisi- 
ble and imaginary world became superadded 
to that which was visible and real : — Such, Ye 
Persians, was the origin of those regions of de- 
light and of affliction, on which you have 
founded the notions of your rejuvenescent 
earth, your city of resurrection placed under 
the equator, and distinguished from all other 
cities by this singular attribute, that the bo- 
dies of its inhabitants cast no shade (w 4.) — 
Such, O Jews and Christians, the disciples of 
the Persians, such was the source of your new 
Jerusalem of the Apocalypse, of your paradise, 
and your heaven, characterised by all the de- 



228 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

tails of the astrological heaven of Hermes.— 
Again, your hell, O ye Mussulmen, a subterra- 
neous abyss, with a bridge extending across 
it, your balance of souls and of their works, 
your judgment pronounced by the angels 
Monkir and JVekir, all equally derive their out- 
line from the mysterious ceremonies of the 
cave of Mithra (x 4) ; and your heaven also is 
an exact resemblance of that of Osiris, Or- 
muzd, and Brama." 



Sect. VI. Sixth System : The animated world, or 
worship of the universe under different emblems. 

u While nations were bewildering them- 
selves in the dark mazes of mythology and fa- 
ble, the phylosophical priests, pursuing their 
studies and researches into the order and ar- 
rangement of the universe, made new disco- 
veries, and framed new systems of powers and 
moving causes. 

" Long confined to simple appearances, 
they had only seen in the motion of the stars 
an unintelligible orderly course of luminous 
bodies, which they supposed to revolve round 
the earth, as the central point of all the 
spheres; but from the moment they had dis- 
covered the rotundity of the terraqueous globe, 
the consequences of this leading fact led them 
to other considerations, and by proceeding 
inductively from inference to inference, they 
arose at length to the sublimest notions of as- 
tronomy and physics. 

" Accordingly, having conceived the -bril- 
liant and simple idea, that the terraqueous globe 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 



229 



is a smaller circle inscribed in the larger circle of 
the heavens, the theory of concentrical circles na- 
turally presented itself in aid of their hypo- 
thesis to resolve the unknown circle of the 
terraqueous globe by the known points of the 
celestial circle ; and the measurement of one 
or more degrees of the meridian gave precise- 
ly the total circumference. Then, taking for 
his compasses the given diameter of the earth, 
a fortunate genius opened them and describ- 
ed with a masterly and bold hand the immense 
orbits of the heavens ; and hence, by a most 
stupendous and prodigious effort of the under- 
standing, the diminutive creature man, ex- 
tending his comprehensive views from the so- 
litary grain of sand, which he himself is little 
more than able to cover, to the infinite dis- 
tances of the stars, launched forth and explor- 
ed the abyss of space and of time. A new 
system of the universe now presented itself to 
his notice, of which the little atom of a globe 
that he inhabited no longer appeared to him 
to be the centre: the important function be- 
fore allotted to this was accordingly transfer- 
red to the enormous mass of the sun, which 
became the inflamed pivot or axis of eight sur- 
rounding spheres, the movements of which were 
from this moment reduced to exact calcula- 
tion (y 4.) 

" The human mind had already done a great 
deal by undertaking to ascertain the disposi- 
tion and order of the great beings of nature; 
but, not contented with this first achievement, 
it wished also to dive into its mechanism, and 
to find out its origin and motive principle.— 

u 



^30 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

And here it is that, absorbed in the abstract 
and metaphysical depths of motion and its 
first cause, of the inherent or communicated 
properties of matter, of its successive forms, 
of its extent, or, in other words, of boundless 
space and time, these philosophizing divines 
puzzled and bewildered themselves in a vor- 
tex of subtle ratiocination and scholastic con- 
troversy 

" The action of the sun upon terrestrial bo- 
dies, having first led them to consider its sub- 
stance as a pure and elementary fire, they 
made it the. focus and reservoir of an ocean 
of igneous or luminous fluid, which, under the 
name of aether, filled the universe, and gave 
nourishment to all beings. They were after- 
wards led, by the analytical investigations of 
an enlightened philosophy, to the detection 
of this fire, or of one perfectly analogous to it, 
in the composition of ail bodies, and perceiv- 
ing that it was the essential and grand agent 
in that spontaneous motion, which in animals 
is denominated life, and in plants vegetation, 
they regarded the operations and mechanism 
of the universe in the light of an homogeneous 
whole, of one and the same body, whose parts.*, 
though distant from each other, had notwithstand- 
ing an intimate connexion {z 4,) and the world as a 
living Being, animated by the organical circu- 
lation of an igenious or rather electrical fluid 
(a 5,) which, by an analogy, borrowed from 
men and animals, was supposed to have the 
sun for its heart or focus (b 5.) 

" Accordingly, among the theological phi- 
losophers, some set out from these principles 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS* 23 T 

as the result of observation : — " That nothing 
is annihilated in the world; that the elements 
are indestructible; that they change their 
combinations, but not their nature ; that the 
life and death of beings are nothing more than 
the varied modifications of the same atoms ; 
that matter possesses self-dependent proper- 
ties, from which originate all its mode of ex- 
isting ; that the world is eternal (c 5,) having 
no bounds either of space or duration :"— Some 
again maintained, — " that God was the whole 
universe ; and that He ivas at once both effect and 
cause, agent and patient, moving principle and thing 
moved, that the unalterable properties, which 
constitute fatality or physical pre-destination, 
are his Law, and they depicted their idea 
sometimes by the emblem of Pan (the great 
whole ;) or of Jupiter, with a starry front, a 
planetary body, and feet of animals;* or by the 
symbol of the Orphic egg, whose yolk suspend- 
ed in the middle of a liquid enclosed around 
by a vaulted concavity or ceiling, represented 
the globe of the sun swimming in cether in the 
middle of the vault or canopy of heaven (d5 ;) 
sometimes by the emblem of a large round 
serpent, figurative of the heavens, where they 
placed the first principle of motion, and for 
that reason of an azure colour, spangled with 
gold spots (the stars,) and devouring his tail, 
that is, re-entering or returning into himself 
by winding continually round like the revolu- 
tions of the spheres; sometimes by the em- 
blem of a man, with his feet locked ai)d tied 
together to denote immutable existence, co~ 

* Vide CEdip. iEgypt. tern. II. page 205» 



232 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

vered with a mantle of all colours, like the 
face of nature, and supporting on his head a 
sphere of gold (e 5,) representative of the 
planetary sphere ; or by that of another man 
?ometimes seated upon the flowers of the Lo- 
tos borne upon the watery abyss, at others, re- 
posing upon a pile of twelve cushions, symbo- 
lical of the twelve celestial signs. And this, 
O nations of India, Japan, Siam, Thibet and Chi- 
na ! this is the theology, which was originally 
founded by the Egyptians, and has been thence 
transmitted down and preserved among you in 
the representations you give ofBrama, Beddou, 
Sommanacodom, and Omito. This too, ye Jews 
and Christians, is the counterpart of an opin- 
ion, of which you have retained a certain por- 
tion, when you describe God as the breath of 
life moving upon the face of the waters, in allusion 
to the wind (/«%) which, at the origin of the 
world, that is at the departure of the spheres 
from the sign of the Crab, announced the over- 
flowing of the Kile, and seemed to be the fore- 
runner of creation" 

Sect. VII. Seventh system. Worship of the Soul 
of the World, that is, of the element of fire, the 
vital principle of the universe. 

But other theological philosophers, revolt- 
ing at the idea of a being at once both effect 
and cause, agent and patient, and which unit- 
ed in one and the same nature such contrary 
natures, distinguished the moving principle from 
the thing moved ; and assuming as an infallible 
position or datum, that matter was in itself in- 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 233* 

ert, they pretended that it received its pro- 
perties by communication from a distinct 
agent, of which it was only the enveloping 
tegument or case. Some made this agent the 
igneous principle, the acknowledged source 
of all motion : while others again made it the 
fluid called cether, as being thought more ac- 
tive and subtile. Now, as they denominated 
the vital and motive principle in animals, a 
soul, a spirit; and, as they always reasoned 
by analogy, and more particularly by the anal- 
ogy of the human species, they gave to the mo- 
tive principle of the whole universe the name 
of soul, intelligence, spirit ; and hence God became 
the vital spirit diffused through all beings, which an- 
imated the vast mundane body. This idea was 
represented sometimes by You-piter, essence of 
motion and animation, principle of existence, or ra- 
ther existence itself (g* 5); at other times by 
Vulcan, or Phtha, elementary principle of fire, 
or by the altar of Vesta, placed in the centre 
of her temple, like the sun amid the spheres ; 
and again by Kneph, a human being dressed 
in deep blue, holding in his hands a sceptre 
and a girdle (the Zodiac,) wearing on his 
head a plume of leathers to express the fuga- 
city of thought, and bringing forth from his 
mouth the great egg (it 5.) 

" Now, as a consequence resulting from this 
system, every being containing in itself a por- 
tion of the igneous or csthereal fluid, the univer- 
sal and common mover, and that fluid soul of 
the world being the Divinity, it followed that 
the souls of all beings were a portion of God 
himself, partaking of all his attributes, that is, 

u 2. 



234 ORIGIN AKD GENEALOGY OF 

being an invisible, simple, and immortal sub- 
stance ; and hence originated the whole s-ys- 
tem of the immortality of the soul, which at first 
was eternity («5.) Hence also its transmigra- 
tions known by the name of metempsychosis, that 
is, the transition of the vital principle from one 
body to another, an idea derived from the real 
transmigration of the material elements. — 
Such, Ye Hindoos, Budsoists, Christians, Mus- 
sulmen, such is the origin of all your ideas of 
the spirituality of the soul : such the source of 
the dreams and reveries of Pythagoras and of 
Plato, your institutors, who were themselves 
no more than the mere echos of the conclud- 
ing sect of visionary philosophers, which we 
have to give an account of." 

Sect. VIII. Eighth system: The world a ma- 
chine : icorship of the Demi-ourgos, Maker, or 
supreme Artificer. 

" Hitherto the theologians, through the 
whole course of their pursuits and disquisitions 
on the frne and subtile substances of aether and 
the igneous principle, bad however uniformly 
confined their views to objects which palpably 
fail under the preceptive cognizance and ju- 
risdiction of the senses, and their theology still 
continued to be the theory of physical powers, 
placed sometimes exclusively in the stars, and 
sometimes disseminated through the whole of 
the universe. But, at this period, some super- 
ficial minds, losing sight of the clue and con- 
catenation of ideas which had led to these pro- 
found inquiries, or ignorant of the facts on whicb 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 235 

they were founded, deranged and blasted the 
valuable results already obtained from them 
by the introduction of a novel and strange chi- 
mera. They pretended that the universe, the 
heavens, the stars, the sun, differed in no re- 
spect from an ordinary machine ; and, apply- 
ing to this hypothesis a comparative analogy 
borrowed from the works of art, they construct- 
ed a fanciful system erected upon the most 
whimsical and extravagant sophisms. " A ma- 
chine," said they, " cannot form itself; there 
must antecedently exist an artificer or work- 
man to construct it ; its very existence implies 
this. Now, the world is a machine ; consequent- 
ly it must have a maker (j 5.)" 

" Hence originated the Demi-ourgos, or su- 
preme artificer, constituted independent, auto- 
cratic, and sovereign Divinity. In vain did the 
ancient philosophy urge in objection to this hy- 
pothesis, that the artificer himself was precise- 
ly in the same predicament with the machine 
in question by standing in equal need of pa- 
rents and an author, and that it was merely 
adding an imaginary step to the ladderin order 
to carry the attribute of eternity a remove 
higher in their taking it away from the World 
and conferring it upon Him. But these inno- 
vators, not contented with this first paradox, 
proceeded to the fabrication of a second, and 
applying to their artificer the theory of the hu- 
man understanding, pretended that the Demi- 
mrgos, fashioned his machine after a model or 
idea preexisting in his own mind. And, as their 
masters, the natural philosophers, had placed 
the primum mobile or sovereign power of motion in 



23G ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

the sphere of the fixed stars under the appel- 
lation of intelligence and of reason, so the 
spiritualists, who aped them, availing themselves 
of the same principle made it an attribute of 
the Demi-ourgos, representing this being as & 
distinct, self-existent substance, to which they 
gave the name of Mens, Logos, (reason or speech.^ 
But, as they moreover held the existence of a 
solar principle or soul of the world independently 
of this they were obliged to make three ranka 
or gradations of divine personages ; first, the 
Demi-ourgos or God the artificer ; secondly, the 
Logos, (reason or speech ;) and thirdly, the spirit 
or soul (of the world) (k 5.) And this, O ye 
Christians, is the romanticfoundation, on which 
your doctrine of the Trinity is built; this is the 
system which was born a Heretic in the Egyp- 
tian temples, was transmitted a Heathen to the 
schools of Greece and Italy, and is now become 
Catholic and Orthodox by the conversion of its 
partizans, the disciples of Pythagoras and Pla- 
to, to Christianity. 

" Thus the Deity, after having been consid- 
ered, in the early stage of its infancy or nativi- 
ty, as the sensible and multiform action of meteors 
and the elements : — then as the combined power of 
the stars, considered in their respective relations to 
terrestrial objects : — then as those terrestrial objects 
themselves in consequence of confounding sym- 
bols with the things they represented : — then 
as the twofold power of JYature manifested m her 
two principal operations of production and destruc- 
tion: — then as the animated world without dis- 
tinction of agent and patient, of cause and 
effect : — then as the solar principle or element of 



KELIGIOtJS IDEAS. 231 

fire acknowledged as the sole cause of motion — ■ 
the Deity, I say, considered under all these 
different points of view, became in the end a 
chimerical and abtsr act being, a mere scholastic sub- 



(~~ a substance without form, a body without 
figure, — a raving dream engendered by a de- 
lirious distemper of the mind, which it baffles 
and must forever baffle all the powers of the 
human understanding to comprehend. But in 
vain does it seek, in this last stage of its trans- 
formation, to screen itself from the senses : for, 
the seal of its origin is indelibly stamped upon 
it, and the whole of its attributes, borrowed 
either from the physical attributes of the uni- 
verse, such as those of immensity, eternity, indi- 
visibility, incomprehensibility, or from the moral 
qualities of man, such as goodness, justice, majes- 
ty, and the like : nay, its very names (^5), be- 
ing all derived from the physical beings which 
have served as its types, particularly the sun, 
the planets, and the world, continually present 
to us, in spite of those who have laboured to 
corrupt and disguise it, the most perfect and 
undisfigured traces of its genuine nature and 
extraction. 

" Such is the train of ideas which the human 
mind had already traced out at a period ante- 
rior to the positive recitals of history; and, 
since their systematic form and connexion 
prove them to have been the result of one con- 
tinued series of study and research, every thing 
inclines us to place the theatre of investigation, 
where their primitive elements locally origin- 
ated, in Egypt. There their progress was ra- 
pid, because the leisure and vacant curiosity 



238 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

of the theological philosophers had, in the re- 
tirement of th,- temples, no other food than the 
enigma of the universe, which was never ab- 
sent from their minds; and because, in the 
political dissentions which long distracted that 
country, each state had its college of priests, 
who being successively auxiliaries or rivals, 
accelerated by their disputes the progress of 
science and discovery (m 5.) 

"Now, there happened at that distant peri- 
od on the borders of the Nile, what has since 
been repeated all over the globe. According 
as each system was formed, it excited by its 
novelty quarrels and schisms ; then, gaining 
credit even by the persecution levelled aginst 
it, it either destroyed anterior ideas, or incor- 
porated itself with and modified them. And as 
political institutions supervened, all opinions, 
by the successive aggregation of states and the 
commixture of people of different nations, be- 
came at length confounded. The concatena- 
tion and connexion of ideas in consequence of 
this perished and sunk into oblivion, and the- 
ology, thereby degenerating into a perfect 
chaos, became a mere logogryph of old tradi- 
tions no longer understood : so that Religion, 
having thus lost sight of its object, was now no 
more than a simple political exepedient em- 
ployed to lead and keep the credulous vulgar 
in awe, which was resorted to eiher by men 
credulous themselves and the dupes of their 
own visionary imaginations, or by bold and 
aspiring geniuses, who formed vast projects 
of ambition." 



KELIGIOUS IBEAS. 239 

Sect. IX. Religion of Moses, or worship of the 
soul of the world ( You-piter.J 

" Of this latter description was the Hebrew 
legislator, who, desirous of separating his na- 
tion from every other, and of forming a dis- 
tinct and exclusive empire, conceived the de- 
sign of founding it upon religious prejudices, 
and of erecting around it a sacred rampart of 
rites and opinions. But in vain did he pro- 
scribe the worship of symbols, the reigning 
religion at that time in Lower Egypt and Phe- 
nicia (n 5:) his God was not on that account 
the less an Egyptian God, of the invention of 
those priests whose disciple Moses had been ; 
and Yahouh (o 5), detected by his very name, 
which means essence (of beings), and by his 
symbol, the fiery hush, is nothing more than the 
soul of the world, the principle of motion, the same 
which Greece shortly after adopted under the 
same denomination in her You-piter, generative 
being, and under that of Ei, existence (p 5 ;) the 
same which the Thebans consecrated under 
the name of Kneph ; which Sais worshipped 
under the emblem of Isis veiled, with this inscrip- 
tion, / am all that has been, all that is, and all that 
will be, and no mortal being has ever drawn aside 
my veil; which Pythagoras honoured under the 
appellation of Vesta, and which the Stoic phi- 
losophy correctly defined by calling it the prin- 
ciple of fire. In vain did Moses wish to oblit- 
erate and exclude from his religion whatever 
might tend to revive or bring to remembrance 
the worship of the stars ; a multiplicity of ves- 
tiges, in spite of all his exertions, still remained 



240 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

to identify its presence: the seven lamps or plan- 
ets of the great candlestick, the twelve stones or 
signs of the Urim of the high-priest, the feast 
of the two equinoxes, each of which in those 
times formed a year, the ceremony of the iamb 
or celestial ram, then at its fifteenth degree; 
and lastly, the name even of Osiris preserved 
in his song (q 5), and the ark or coffer, in im- 
itation of the tomb in which that God was in- 
closed ; all which remain to bear record of the 
genealogical extraction of his ideas, and of 
their derivation from the common source." 

Sect. X. Religion of Zoroaster, 

" Zoroaster was also a man of the same 
bold and enterprising genius, who, five ages 
after Moses, and in the time of David, revived 
and moralized among the Medes and Bactrians 
the whole Egyptian system of Osiris and Ty- 
phon, under the names of Ormuzd and Ahri- 
manes who called Virtue and Good the reign of 
summer, Sin and Evil the reign of winter, Ore- 
ation of the world the renovation of nature in the 
spring, resurrection that of the spheres in the 
secular periods of their conjunctions, future 
life* hell and paradise, what were the Tartarus 
and Elysium of the ancient astrologers and geo- 
graphers ; in a word, who only consecrated 
the already existing reveries of the mystic 
system." 

Sect. XI. Budsoism, or the religion of the Sama- 

neans. 

" Of the same enterprising class likewise 
were the promulgators of the sepulchral doc- 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 241 

trine of the Samaneans, who founded on the me- 
tempsychosis the misanthropic system of renun- 
ciation and denial, of self ; who, laying it down 
as a principle, that the body is only & prison 
where the soul lives in impure confinement; that 
life is but a dream, an illusion, and the world 
merely a thoroughfare to another country, to 
a life without end, placed virtue and perfection in 
absolute torpor, in the extinction of all sensibility r , 
in the abnegation of the physical organs, in the 
annihilation of the whole being; whence result- 
ed the fasts, penance, mortifications, solitude, con- 
templations, and all the mad and deplorable 
practices of the wild- brained Anchorets" 

Sect. XII. Brachmanism, or the Indian system. 

;; Of the same description too were the 
founders of the Indian system, who, refining 
after Zoroaster upon the two principles of 
production and destruction, introduced an inter- 
mediate one, that of preservation, and upon their 
trinity in unity of Brama, Chiven and Bichenou, 
heaped together a mass of traditional allego- 
ries, in conjunction with the finespun subtle- 
ties of their metaphysics. 

" Such are the materials, which pervaded 
Asia, and have existed there for a long series 
of ages, when a fortuitous train of circum- 
stances and events gave rise to new modifica- 
tions of them on the banks of the Euphrates 
and on the shores of the Mediterranean." 



242 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OP 

Sect. XIII. Christianity, or the allegorical wor- 
ship of the Sun under the cabalisiical names of 
Chris-en or Christ, and Yes-us or Jesus. 

" In the establishment of a separate people, 
in vain did Moses imagine that he should 
guard them from the influence of every foreign 
notion : an invincible bias, founded on an af- 
tinity of origin, continually called back the 
Hebrews to the worship of the neighboring 
nations ; and the commercial and political re- 
lations that necessarily subsisted between 
them, tended every day to strengthen this 
congenial and growing propensity. So long as 
the Mosaic institution maintained its ground, 
the coercion of government and of the laws 
was a considerable bar to innovation, and ef- 
fectually retarded its progress; yet even then 
the high places ivere filled with idols, and God the 
Sun had his chariot and horses painted in the 
palaces of kings, and in the very temple of 
Yahouh; but, when the conquests of the Sul- 
tans of JVineveh and of Babylon had dissolved 
the ties of public authority, the people, left to 
their own discretion, and encouraged by their 
conquerors, no longer opposed the bent of 
their inclination, but openly professed profane 
opinions, which became currently received in 
Judea. At first the iVssyrian colonies, settled 
in place of the tribes, filled the kingdom of 
Samaria, with the dogmas of the Magi, which 
soon found their way into the kingdom of Ju- 
dah. Afterwards, when Jerusalem was subju- 
gated, the Egyptians* Syrians, and Jlrabs* flock- 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 24 



3 



ing from all parts into this open country, in- 
troduced their tenets, and the religion of Mo- 
ses thus underwent a double alteration. Again, 
the priests and great men, removed to Baby- 
lon, and educated in the sciences of the Chal- 
deans, imbibed, during a residence of seventy 
years, the whole of their theology, and from 
that moment the dogmas of the inimical Gemus 
(Satan,) of the Archangel Michael (r 5,) of the 
jincient of Days (Ormuzd.) of the rebellious an- 
gels, of the celestial conflicts, of the immortality of 
the soul, and of the resurrection, (dogmas unknown 
to JMoses or rejected by him since he observes a 
perfect silence respecting them,) became na- 
turalised among the Jews. 

" On their return to their own country, the 
emigrants brought back with them these for- 
eign notions: and the introduction of these 
innovations in opinion occasioned from the 
beginning disputes between their partisans the 
Pharisees, and their opponents the Sadducees, 
the great champions in behalf of the ancient 
national religion; but the former, seconded 
by the predisposition of the people, and the 
habits they had already contracted, and sup- 
ported by the authority of the Persians, their 
deliverers, finally gained the ascendency over 
the latter, and thus the theology of Zoroaster 
became consecrated by the children of Mo- 
ses (s 5.) 

" A fortuitous analogy between two leading 
ideas proved particularly favourable to this 
coalition, and formed the basis of the last sys- 
tem of all, the fortune of which was no less 
surprising than the causes of its formation. 



244 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OB 1 

" From the time that the Assyrians had de- 
stroyed the kingdom of Samaria, some persons 
of sagacity and discernment, foreseeing that 
Jerusalem was doomed to undergo the same 
late, were perpetually foreboding and pre- 
dicting it : and their predictions were all 
stamped with this particularity, that they al- 
ways concluded with prayers for a happy re- 
establishment and regeneration, announced in 
the form of prophecies. The enthusiasm of the 
Hierophants had pictured to itself a royal de- 
liverer, who was to re-establish the nation in its 
ancient glory : the Hebrews were again to be- 
come a powerful and conquering people, and Je- 
rusalem the capital of an empire that was to ex- 
tend over the whole world. 

" From events having realised the first part 
of those predictions, the ruin of Jerusalem, the 
minds of the people clung to tne second with 
a tenacious firmness of belief proportioned to 
i heir misfortunes ; and the afflicted Jews wait- 
ed with the impatience of want and desire, for 
the victorious king and deliverer that was to come 
to save the nation of Moses, and to restore the 
throne of David. 

'* The sacred and mythological traditions 
of preceding times had spread all over Asia a 
tenet perfectly congenial with the foregoing. 
A grand mediator, a final I judge, a future saviour, 
was every where currently spoken of, who, in 
the, character of King, God, Conqueror, and Le- 
gislator, was to restore the golden age upon 
earth, to deliver the world from the reign of 
evil, and to re-establish among mankind the 
reign of good, peace and happiness. These no- 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 245 

(ions interested and operated upon the minds 
of the people, the more from their affording 
them consolation, under that deplorable state 
of real suffering and calamity into which they 
had been plunged, by the successive devasta- 
tions of conquests and conquerors, and the 
barbarous despotism of the governments. — 
This resemblance between the oracles of dif- 
ferent nations, and the predictions of the pro- 
phets, excited the attention of the Jews ; and 
the prophets had no doubt had the address to 
model and colour their representations, after 
the spirit and style of the sacred books em- 
ployed in the Pagan mysteries. The arrival of 
a great minister, of a final saviour, was there- 
fore the general expectation in Judea, when 
at length a singular circumstance served to 
determine the precise period of his coming. 

" It was recorded in the sacred books of the 
Persians and the Chaldeans that the world, 
composed of a cycle of twelve thousand, was di- 
vided into two partial revolutions, of which one, 
the age and reign of good, was to terminate at 
the expiration of six thousand, and the other, 
the age and reign of evil, at the expiration of 
another six thousand. 

" The original authors of these recitals 
thereby denoted the annual revolution of the 
great celestial orb called the World ; (a revolution 
composed of twelve months or signs, each divid- 
ed into a thousand parts,) and the two systema- 
tic periods of winter and summer, each alike 
consisting of six thousand. But all these equi- 
vocal expressions having been erroneously 
explained, and taken in an absolute and moral, 

v2 



2ib ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

instead of their astrological and physical ac- 
ceptation, the result was, that the annual wags 
taken for a secular world, the thousands of 
time tor thousands of years ; and presuming, 
froBQ the appearance of things, that that in 
which they lived was the age of misfortune. 
they concluded that it was to terminate at the 
expiration of the .star thousand pretended years 

\J 5.) 

M Now. according to the Jewish computa- 
tion, six- thousand years had already nearly 
elapsed since the i^supposed^ creation of the 
World (« 5.) This coincidence was the 
source oi considerable agitation of mind. — 
The thoughts of the people were bent upon 
nothing but an approaching end. The Hiero- 
phanis were interrogated, and their mystical 
books examined, but were found to disagree 
as to the precise term of its accomplishment, 
The great Mediator and final Judge was ex- 
pected, and his advent anxiously coveted, in 
order that he might put a period to so many 
calamities. This personage was so much the 
subject oi conversation, that some one was 
said to have seen him. and a rumour of this 
kind was all that was wanting to establish a 
general certainty. Hence popular report was 
convened i; to an attested fact: the imagina- 
ry being became realised : and all the circum- 
stances of mythological tradition being com- 
piled and linked with this phantom assumed 
the form of an authentic and regular history, 
which from henceforth it was nothing: short of 
blasphemy to doubt. 

u In this mythological history the following 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS, 247 

traditions were recorded : — " That, in the be- 
ginning, a man and a woman had, by their fall, 
brought sin and evil into the world" 

" By this was denoted the astronomical fact 
of the celestial Virgin, and the herdsman, 
(Bootes) which, setting heliacally at the au- 
tumnal equinox, resigned the heavens to the 
wintry constellations, and seemed, in sinking 
below the horizon, to introduce into the world 
the genius of evil, Ahrimanes, represented 
by the constellation of the Serpent (x 5.) 

" That the woman had drawn and seduced 
away the man (y 5." ) 

44 And indeed the Virgin which sets the 
first, actually appears to draw the Herdsman 
(Bootes) after her. 

" That the woman had tempted him by offering 
him fruit pleasant to the sight and good for food, 
which gave the knowledge of good and evil" 

" Now, the Virgin is accordingly depicted 
holding a bunch of fruit in her hand, which she 
appears to extend towards the Herdsman: in 
like manner, the branch, the emblem of au- 
tumn, placed in the picture of Mithra {z 5) on 
the confines of winter and summer, seems to 
open the door, and to give the knowledge, the 
key, of good and evil. 

" That this couple had been driven from the ce- 
lestial garden, and that a cherub with a flaming 
sword had been placed at the door to guard it" 

"And when the Virgin and the Herdsman 
sink below the Western horizon, Perseus rises 
on the opposite side (a 6), which genius ap- 
pears to drive them, sword in hand, from the 
summer heaven, the garden and reign of fruits 
and flowers* 



248 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF 

" That from this virgin would be born, would 
spring up a shoot, a child, that should crush the ser- 
pent 's head, and deliver the world from sin" 

" By this was denoted the Sun. which, at the 
period of the winter solstice, at the precise 
moment that the Persian Magi drew the horo- 
scope of the new year, was found in the bosom of the 
Virgin, in its heliacal rising on the eastern horizon ; 
and which was accordingly represented in their 
astrological pictures under the form of an in- 
fant suckled by a chaste virgin (b 6), and after- 
wards became, at the vernal equinox, the Ram 
or Lamb, conqueror of the constellation of the 
Serpent, which disappeared from the heavens. 

" That in his infancy, this restorer oj the di- 
vine or celestial nature, would lead an abased, 
humble, obscure, and indigent life" 

" By which was meant, that the winter sun 
was abased or sunk beneath the horizon, and 
that this first period of his four ages, or sea- 
sons, was a period of obscurity and scarcity, of 
fasting and privation. 

" That being put to death by the nicked, he 
would gloriously rise again, and ascend from hell 
into heaven, where he would reign forever" 

" By these expressions was described the 
life of the same sun, who, from terminating his 
career at the winter solstice, when Typhon and 
the rebellious angels bore sway, seemed to be 
put to death by them ; but shortly after revived 
and rose again (c 6) in the firmament, of heaven 
where he still remains. 

" These traditions went still farther speci- 
fying his astrological and mysterious names, sta- 
ting that he was called sometime^ Chris or the 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 249 

Preserver (d 6) ; and this ye people of India, 
this is 3 our God Chris-en or Chris-na ; and this 
too, ye Christians of the Greek and Western 
Church, is your Chris-tos, the son of Mary, — 
That at other times he was called Yes, by the 
union of three letters, which, according to their 
numerical import, express the number 608, one 
of the solar periods (e 6). And here, O Euro- 
peans, is the name which, with a Latin termi- 
nation, has become your Yesus or Jesus ; the 
ancient and cabalistical name given to young 
Bacchus,the clandestine son of the virgin Miner' 
va, who in the whole history of his life, and 
even in his death, calls to mind the history of 
the God of the Christians ; that is the star of day 
of which they are both of them emblems. 

At these words a violent murmur arose on 
the part of the Christian groupes ; but the Ma- 
hometans, the Lamas, and the Hindoos hav- 
ing called them to order, the orator thus con- 
cluded his discourse. 

" You are not to be told," said he, " in what 
manner the rest of this system was formed in the 
chaos and anarchy of the three first centuries ; 
how a multiplicity of opinions divided the peo- 
ple, all of which were embraced with equal 
zeal and retained with equal obstinacy, be- 
cause alike founded on ancient tradition, they 
were alike sacred. You know how, at the end of 
the three centuries, government having espous- 
ed one of these sects, made it the orthodox re- 
ligion ; that is to say, the predominant religion, 
to the exclusion of the rest, which, on account 
of their inferiority, were denominated here- 
sies ; how, and by what means of violence and 



250 ORIGIN AND GENEALOGY OF, &C. 

seduction this religion was propagated, and 
gained strength, and afterwards became di- 
vided and weakened : how, six centuries after 
the innovation of Christianity, another system 
was formed out of its materials and those of 
the Jews, and a political and theological em- 
pire was created by Mahomet at the expence 
of that of Moses and the vicars of Jesus. 

"Now if you take a retrospect of the whole 
history of the spirit of religion, you will find, 
that in its origin it had no other author than the 
sensations and wants of man : that the idea of 
God had no other type, no other model, than 
that of physical poivers, material existences, ope- 
rating good or evil, by impressions of pleasure 
or pain on sensible beings. You will find that 
in the formation of every system this spirit of 
religion pursued the same tract, and was uni- 
form in its proceedings ; that in all, the dogma 
never failed to represent, under the name of God 
the operations of nature, and the passions and 
prejudices of men ; that in all, morality had for 
its sole end, desire of happiness and aversion 
to pain ; but that the people and the majority 
of the legislators, ignorant of the true road that 
led thereto, invented false, and therefore con- 
trary ideas of virtue and vice, of good and evils 
that is, of what renders man happy or misera- 
ble. You will find, that in all the means and 
causes propogation and establishment exhib- 
ited the same scenes, the same passions, and 
the same events, continual disputes about 
words, false pretexts for inordinate zeal, for 
revolutions, for wars lighted up by the ambi- 
tion of chiefs, by the chicanery of promulga- 



THE END OF ALL, &C. 251 

tors, by the credulity of proselytes, by the ig- 
norance of the vulgar, and by the grasping 
cupidity and the intollerant pride of all. In 
short, you will find that the whole history of 
the spirit of religion h merely that of the falli- 
bility and uncertainty of the human mind, 
which, placed in a world that it does not com- 
prehend, is yet desirous of solving the enigma } 
and which, the astonishing spectator of this mys- 
terious and visible prodigy , imagines causes, sup- 
poses ends, builds systems ; then, finding one de~ 
jeclive, abandons it for another not less vicious ; 
hates the error that it has renounced, is ignorant 
of the new one (hat it adopts ; rejects the truth of 
which it is in pursuit, invents chimeras of hetero- 
genous and contradictory beings, and, ever dream- 
ing of wisdom and happiness, loses itself in a 
labyrinth of torments and illusions." 



CHAP. XXIII. 

THE END OF ALL RELIGIONS THE SAME. 

Thus spake the orator, in the name of those 
who had made the origin and genealogy of re- 
ligious ideas their peculiar study. 

The theologians of different systems now ex- 
pressed their opinions of this discourse. "It 
is an impious representation," said some, 
" which aims at nothing less than the subver- 
sion of all belief, the introducing insubordina- 
tion into the minds of men, and annihilating 
our power and ministry." — " It is a romance," 
said others, " a tissue of conjectures, fabrica- 



252 THE END OF ALL 

ted with art, but destitute of foundation."— 
The moderate and prudent said, " Supposing 
all this to be true, where is the use of reveal- 
ing these mysteries ? Our opinions are doubt- 
less pervaded with errors, but those errors are 
a necessary curb on the multitude. The world 
has gone on thus for two thousand years : why 
should we now alter its course ?" 

The murmur of disapprobation, which never 
fails to arise against every kind of innovation, 
already began to increase, when a numerous 
groupe of plebeians and untaught men of every 
country and nation, without prophets, without 
doctors, without religious worship, advancing 
in the sand, attracted the attention of the whole 
assembly; and one of them, addressed himself 
to the legislators, spoke as follows. 

" Mediators and umpires of nations ! The 
strange recitals that have been made during 
the whole of the present debate, we never, 
till this day, heard of; and our understanding, 
astonished and bewildered at such a multi- 
tude of doctrines, some of them learned, oth- 
ers absurd, and all unintelligible, remains in 
doubt and uncertainty. One reflection how- 
ever has struck us : in reviewing so many pro- 
digious facts, so many contradictory assertions, 
we could not avoid asking ourselves, Of what 
importance to us are all these discussions? 
Where is the necessity of our knowing what 
happened five or six thousand years ago, in 
countries of which we are ignorant, among 
men who will ever be unknown to us ? True 
or false, of what importance is it to us to know 
whether the world has existed six thousand 



RELIGIONS THE SAME. 253 

years or twenty thousand ; whether it was 
made of something or of nothing; of itself, or 
by an artificer, equally in his turn requiring 
an author? What! uncertain as we are of 
what is passing around us, shall we pretend to 
ascertain what is transacting in the sun, the 
moon and imaginary spaces? Having forgot- 
ten our own infancy shall we pretend to know 
the infancy of the world ? Who can attest 
what he has never seen ? Who can certify the 
truth of what no one comprehends? 

" Beside, what will it avail as to our exist- 
ence whether we believe or reject these chi- 
meras ? Hitherto neither our fathers nor our- 
selves have had any idea of them, and yet we 
do not perceive that on that account we have 
experienced more or less sun, more or less 
subsistence, more or less good or evil. 

" If the knowledge of these things be neces- 
sary, how is it that we have lived as happily 
without it as those whom it has so much dis- 
quieted ? If it be superfluous, why should we 
now take upon ourselves the burthen ?" — 
Then addressing himself to the doctors and 
theologians : " How can it be required of us, 
poor and ignorant as we are, whose every 
moment is scarcely adequate to the cares of 
our subsistence and the labours of which you 
reap the profit; how can it be required of us 
to be versed in the numerous histories you 
have related, to read the variety of books 
which you have quoted, and to learn the dif- 
ferent languages in which they are written ? 
If our lives were protracted to a thousand 

w 



251 THE END OF ALL 

years, scarcely would it be sufficient for this 
purpose." 

" It is not necessary," said the doctors, 
" that you should acquire all this science : we 
possess it in your stead." 

" Meanwhile," replied these children of 
simplicity, " with all your science, do you 
agree among yourselves ? What then is its 
utility ? Besides, how can you answer for us ? 
If the faith of one man may be the substitute 
of the faith of many, what need was there 
that you should believe ? Your fathers might 
believe for you ; and that would have been 
the more reasonable, since they were the eye- 
witnesses upon whose credit you depend. — 
Lastly, what is this circumstance which you 
call belief if it has no practical tendency ? 
And what practical tendency can you disco- 
ver in this question, whether or no the world 
be eternal ?" 

" To believe wrong respecting it would be 
offensive to God," said the doctors. 

" How do you know that?" cried the chil- 
dren of simplicity. 

" From our scriptures," replied the doctors. 

" We do not understand them," rejoined 
the simple men. 

" We understand them for you," said the 
doctors. 

" There lies the difficulty," resumed the 
simple men. " By what right have you ap- 
pointed yourselves mediators between God 
and us ?" 

" By the command of God," said the doc- 
tors. 



RELIGIONS THE SAME. 255 

" Give us a proof of that command," said 
the simple men. 

" It is in our scriptures," said the doctors. 

"We do not understand them," answered 
the simple men, " nor can we understand ho\V 
a just God can place you over our heads.-—- 
Why does our common Father require us to 
believe the same propositions with a less de- 
gree of evidence ? Fie has spoken to you ; 
be it so: he is infallible, he cannot deceive 
you. But we are spoken to by you ; and who 
will assure us that you are not deceived, or 
that you are incapable of deceiving? If we 
are mistaken, how can it consist with the jus- 
tice of God to condemn us for the neglect of 
a rule with which we were never acquainted?" 

" He has given you the law of nature," said 
the doctors. 

" What is the law of nature?" said the sim- 
ple men. "If this law be sufficient, why does 
he give us another ? If it be insufficient, why 
did he give us that?" 

The judgments of God," replied the doc- 
tors, " are mysterious; his justice is not re- 
strained by the rules of human justice." 

"If justice with him and with us," said the 
simple men, " mean a different thing, what 
criterion can we have to judge of his justice ? 
And once more, to what purpose all these 
laws? What end does he propose by them?" 

" To render you more happy," replied a 
doctor, " by rendering you better and more 
virtuous. God has manifested himself by so 
many oracles and prodigies to teach mankind 



256 THE END OF ALL 

the proper use of his benefits, and to dissuade 
them from injuring each other." 

" If that be the case," said the simple men, 
" the studies and reasonings you told us of 
are unnecessary : we want nothing but to 
have it clearly made out to us which is the 
religion that best fulfils the end that all pro- 
pose to themselves." 

Instantly, every groupe boasting of the su- 
perior excellence of its morality, there arose 
among the partisans of the different systems 
of worship, a new dispute, more violent than 
any preceding one. " Ours," said the Maho- 
metans, " is the purest morality which teach- 
es every virtue useful to men and acceptable 
to God. We profess justice, disinterested- 
ness, resignation, charity, alms-giving, and de- 
votion. We torment not the soul with super- 
stitious fears ; we live free from alarm, and 
we die without remorse." 

" And have you the presumption," replied 
the Christian priests, " to talk of morality ? 
iTou, whose chief has practised licentiousness, 
and preached doctrines that are a scandal to 
all purity, and the leading principle of whose 
religion is homicide and war. For the truth 
of this we appeal to experience. For twelve 
centuries past your fanatacism has never ceas- 
ed to spread desolation and carnage through 
the nations of the earth : and that Asia, once 
so flourishing, now languishes in insignificance 
and barbarism, is ascribable to your doctrine ; 
to that doctrine the friend of ignorance, the 
enemy of all instruction, which, on the one 
hand consecrating the most absolute despot- 



RELIGIONS THE SAME. 257 

ism in him who commands, and on the other 
imposing the most blind and passive obedience 
on those who are governed, has benumbed aii 
the faculties of man, and plunged nations in a 
state of brutality. 

" How different is the case with our sublime 
and celestial morality ! It is she that drew the 
earth from its primitive barbarity, from the 
absurd and cruel superstitions of idolatry, 
from human sacrifices (/ 6,) and the orgies of 
Pagan mystery : it is she that has purified the 
manners of men, proscribed incest and adul- 
tery, polished savage nations, abolished slave- 
ry, introduced new and unknown virtues to 
the world, universal charity, the equality of 
mankind in the eyes of God, forgiveness and 
forgetfulness of injuries, extinction of the pas- 
sions, contempt of worldly greatness, and in 
short, taught the necessity of a life perfectly 
holy and spiritual." 

" We admire," said the Mahometans, " The 
ease with which you can reconcile the evan- 
gelical charity and meekness of which you so 
much boast, with the injuries and outrages 
that you are continually exercising towards 
your neighbour. When you criminate with 
so little ceremony the morals of the great cha- 
racter revered by us, we have a fair opportu- 
nity of retorting upon you in the conduct of 
him whom you adore ; but we disdain such 
advantages, and, confining ourselves to the 
real object of the question, we maintain that 
your gospel morality is by no means charac- 
terised by the perfection which you ascribe to 
it. It is not true that it has introduced into 

w 2 



258 THE END OF ALL 

the world new and unknown virtues : for ex- 
ample, the equality of mankind in the eves of 
God, and the fraternity and benevolence which 
are the consequence of this equality, were te- 
nets formerly professed by the sect of He>me- 
tics and Samaneans (g 6,) from whom you have 
your descent. As to forgiveness of injuries, it 
had been taught by the Pagans themselves ; 
but in the latitude you give to it, it ceases to 
be a virtue, and becomes an immorality and 
a crime. Your boasted precept, to him that 
strikes thee on thy right cheek turn the other 
also, is not only contrary to the feelings of 
man, but a flagrant violation of every principle 
of justice; it emboldens the wicked by impu- 
nity, degrades the virtuous by the servility to 
which it subjects them; delivers up the world 
to disorder and tyranny, and dissolves the 
bands of society : such is the true spirit of 
your doctrine. The precepts and parables of 
your gospel also never represent God other 
than as a despot, acting by no rule of equity^ 
than as a partial father, treating a debauched 
and prodigal son with greater favour than his 
obedient and virtuous children ; than as a ca- 
pricious master giving the same wages to him 
who has wrought but one hour, as to those 
who have bone the burthen and heat of the 
day, and preferring the last comers to the 
first. In short, your morality throughout is 
unfriendly to human intercourse, a code of 
misanthropy, calculated to give men a disgust 
for life and society, and attach them to soli- 
tude and celibacy. 
" With respect to the manner in which you 



RELIGIONS THE SAME, 25$ 

have practised your boasted doctrine, we in 
our turn appeal to the testimony of fact, and 
ask : was it your evangelical meekness and 
forbearance which excited those endless wars 
among your sectaries^ those atrocious perse- 
cutions of what you called heretics, those 
crusades against the Arims, the Manicheans, 
and the Protestants ; not to mention those whichr 
you have committed against us, nor the sacri- 
ligious associations still subsisting among you, 
formed of men sworn to perpetuate them (h 6)? 
Was it the charity of your gospel that led you 
to exterminate whole nations in America, and 
to destroy the empires of Mexico and Peru ; 
that makes you still desolate Africa, the inhab- 
itants of which you sell like cattle, notwith- 
standing the abolition of slavery that you pre- 
tend your religion has effected ; that makes 
you ravage India whose domains you usurp ; 
in short, is it charity that has prompted you 
for three centuries past ta disturb the peace- 
able inhabitants of three continents, the most 
prudent of whom, those of Japan and China, 
have been constrained to banish you from their 
country that they might escape your chains^ 
and recover their domestic tranquility ?"■ 

Here the Bramins, the Rabbins, the Bonzes, 
the Chamans, the priests of the Molucco islands 
and of the coast of Guinea, overwhelming the 
Christian doctors with reproaches, cried: " Yes t 
these men are robbers and hypocrites, preach- 
ing simplicity to inveigle confidence ; humil- 
ity, the more easy to enslave ; poverty, in or- 
der to appropriate all riches to themselves ; 
they promise another world, the better to in- 



260 THE END OF ALL 

vade this ; and, while they preach toleration 
and charity, they commit to the flames, in the 
name of God, those who do not worship him 
exactly as they do." 

" Lying priests," retorted the missionaries, 
" it is you who abuse the credulity of ignorant 
nations, that you may bend them to your yoke: 
your ministry is the art of imposture and de- 
ception : you have made religion a system of 
avarice and cupidity : you feign to have cor- 
respondence with spirits, and the oracles they 
issue are your own wills: you pretend to read 
the stars, and your desires are only what des- 
tiny decrees: you make idols speak, and the 
Gods are the mere instruments of your pas- 
sions: you have invented sacrifices and liba- 
tions for the sake of the profit you would thus 
derive from the milk of the flocks, and the flesh 
and fat of victims : and, under the cloak of pie- 
ty, you devour the offerings made to Gods who 
cannot eat, and the substance of the people, 
obtained by industry and toil." 

" And you," replied the Bramins, the Bonzes 
and the Chamans, "Sell to the credulous sur- 
vivor vain prayers for the souls of his dead 
relatives. With your indulgences and abso- 
lutions you have arrogated to yourselves the 
power and functions oi God himself ; and, mak- 
ing a traffic of his grace, you have put heaven 
up to auction, and have founded by your sys- 
tem of expiation, a tariffof crimes that has per- 
verted the consciences of men (i 6)." 

" Add to this," said the Imans, " that with 
these men has originated the most insiduous 
of all wickedness, the absurd and impious ob- 



RELIGIONS THE SAME. 26 i 

ligation of recounting to them the most impen- 
etrable secrets of actions, of thoughts of velle- 
ties (confession); by means of which their 
insolent curiosity has carried its inquisition 
even to the sacred sanctuary of the nuptial bed 
(k 6), and the inviolable asylum of the heart." 
By thus reproaching each other, the chiefs 
of the different worships revealed all the 
crimes of the ministry, all the hidden vices of 
their profession, and it appeared that the spirit, 
the system of conduct, the action and manners 
of priests were among all nations, uniformly 
the same ; that, every where they had formed 
secret associations, corporations of individuals 
enemies to the rest of the society (/ 6) ; — that 
they had attributed to themselves certain pre- 
rogatives and immunities, in order to be ex- 
empt from the burthens which fell upon the 
other classes: — that they shared neither the 
toil of the labourer, nor the perils of the sol- 
dier, nor the vicissitudes of the merchant;-— 
that they led a life of celibacy to avoid domes- 
tic inconveniences and cares : — that, under the 
garb of poverty, they found the secret of be- 
coming rich, and of procuring every enjoy- 
ment: — that, under the name of mendicants, 
they collected imposts more considerable than 
those paid to princes : — that under the appel- 
lation of gifts and offerings, they obtained a 
certain revenue unaccompanied with trouble 
or expense : — that upon the pretext of seclu- 
sion and devotion, they lived in indolence and 
licentiousness : — that they had made alms a 
virtue, that they might subsist in comfort upon 
the labour of other men : — that they had in- 



262 THE END OP ALL 

vented the ceremonies of worship to attract the 
reverence of the people, calling themselves 
the meditors and interpreters of the Gods with 
the sole view of assuming all his power ; and 
that for this purpose, according to the know- 
ledge or ignorance of those upon whom they 
had to work, they had made themselves, by 
turns, astrologers, casters of planets* augur ers, ma- 
gicians (m 6,) necromancers, quacks, courtiers, con- 
fessors of princes, always aiming at influence for 
their own exclusive advantage : — that some- 
times they had exalted the prerogative of kings 
and held their persons to be sacred, to obtain 
their favour or participate in their power : — 
that at others they had decried this doctrine 
and preached the murder of tyrants (reserv- 
ing it to themselves to specify the tyranny,) 
in order to be revenged of the slights and dis- 
obedience they had experienced from them : — 
that at all times they had called impiety what 
proved injurious to their interest; had oppos- 
ed public instruction, that they might monopo- 
lize science; and, in short, had universally 
found the secret of living in tranquility amidst 
the anarchy they occasioned ; secure under the 
despotism they sanctioned ; in i ndolence, amidst 
the industry they recommended ; and in abun- 
dance, in the very bosom of scarcity ; and all 
this, by carrying on the singular commerce of 
selling words and gestures to the credulous, 
who paid for them as for commodities of the 
greatest value (n 6). 

Then the people, seized with fury, were 
upon the point of tearing to pieces the men 
who had deceived them ; but the legislators, ar- 



RELIGIONS THE SAME. 263 

resting this sally of violence, and addressing 
the chiefs and doctors, said : And is it thus, O 
institutor of the people, that you have misled 
and abused them ?" 

And the terrified priests replied : " O legis- 
lators, we are men, and the people are so su- 
perstitious ! their weakness excited us to take 
advantage of it." # 

And the king said : " O legislators, the peo- 
ple are so servile and so ignorant; they have 
prostrated themselves before the yoke which 
we scarcely had the boldness to show to 
them."t 

Then the legislators turning towards the 
people, said to them : " Remember what you 
have just heard; it contains two important 
truths. Yes, it is yourselves that cause the 
evils of which you complain; it is you that en- 
courage tyrants by a base flattery of their pow- 
er, by an absurd admiration of their pretended 
beneficence, by converting obedience into ser- 
vility, and liberty into licentiousness, and re- 
ceiving every imposition with credulity. Can 
you think of punishing upon them the errors 
of your own ignorance and selfishness?" 

And the people, smitten with confusion, re- 
mained in a melancholy silence. 

* Consider in this view the Brabanters. 

f The inhabitants of Vienna, for example, who harnessed 
themselves like cattle, and drew the chariot of Leopold, 



264 SOLUTION OP THE PROBLEM 



CHAP. XXIV. 

SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF CONTRADICTIONS. 

The legislators then resumed their address. 
" O nations !" said they, " we have heard the 
discussion of your opinions; and the discord 
that divides you has suggested to us various 
reflections, which we beg leave to propose to 
you as questions which it is necessary that you 
should solve. 

" Considering, in the first place, the numer- 
ous and contradictory creeds you have adopt- 
ed, we would ask on what motives your per- 
suasion is founded : Is it from deliberate choice 
that you have enlisted under the banners of 
one prophet rather than under those of another? 
Before you adopted this doctrine in preference 
to that, did you first compare, did you mature- 
ly examine them ? Or has not your belief been 
rather the chance result of birth, and of the 
empire of education and habit ? Are you not 
born Christians on the banks of the Tiber, Ma- 
hometans on those of Euphrates, Idolaters on the 
shores of India, in the same manner as you are 
born fair in cold and temperate regions, and 
of a sable complexion under the African sun ? 
And if your opinions are the effect of your po- 
sition on the globe, of parentage, of imitation, 
are such fortuitous circumstances to be regard- 
ed as grounds of conviction, and arguments of 
truth ? 

" In the second place, when we reflect on 
the proscriptive spirit and the arbitrary intol- 
erance of your mutual claims, we are terrified 



6F CONTRADICTIONS. 265 

at the consequences that (low from your prin- 
ciples. Nations! who reciprocally doom each 
other to the thunderbolts of* celestial wrath, 
suppose the universal Being, whom you revere, 
were at this moment to descend from heaven 
among this crowd of people, and, cioathed in 
ail his power, were to sit upon this throne to 
judge you: suppose him to say — " Mortals! I 
consent to adopt your own principles of jus- 
tice into my administration. Of all the differ- 
ent religions you profess a single religion shall 
now be preferred to the rest; all the others, 
this vast multitude of standards, of nations, of 
prophets, shall be condemned to everlasting 
destruction. Nor is this enough; among the 
different sects of the chosen religion one only 
shall experience my favour, and the rest be 
condemned. I will go farther than this : of this 
single sect of this one religion, I will reject all 
the individuals whose conduct has not corre- 
sponded to their speculative precepts. O man ! 
few indeed will then be the number of the elect 
vou assign me ! Penurious hereafter will be the 
stream of benificence which will succeed to 
my unbounded mercy ! Rare and solitary will 
be the catalogue of admirers that you hence- 
forth destine to my greatness and my glory." 
And the legislators rising said ; "It is enough; 
you have pronounced your will. Ye nations, 
behold the urn in which your names shall be 
placed ; one single name shall be drawn from 
the multitude : approach and conclude this 
terrible lottery." — But the people, seized with 
terror, cried: "No, no; we are brethren and 
equals, we cannot consent to condemn each 



266 SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM 

other." — Then the legislators having resumed 
their seats, continued : " O men ! who dispute 
upon so many subjects, lend an attentive ear 
to a problem we submit to you, and decide it 
in the exercise of your own judgments."— 
The people accordingly lent the strictest at- 
tention ; and the legislators lifting one hand 
towards heaven, and pointing to the sun, said : 
" O nations, is the form of this sun which en- 
lightens you triangular or square ?" — And they 
replied with one voice, " It is neither, it is 
round." 

Then taking the golden balance that was 
upon the alter, "This metal," asked the legis- 
lators, " which you handle every day, is a mass 
of it heavier than another mass of equal di- 
mensions of brass ?" — " Yes," the people again 
unanimously replied ; " gold is heavier than 
brass." 

The legislators then took the sword. " Is 
this iron less hard than lead ?" — " No," said 
the nations. 

" Is sugar sweet and gall bitter?" — "Yes." 
" Do you love pleasure, and hate pain ?"— 
« Yes." 

" Respecting these objects and a multipli- 
city of others of a similar nature, you have 
then but one opinion. Now tell us, is there 
an abyss in the centre of the earth, and are 
there inhabitants in the moon ?" 

At this question, a general noise was heard, 
and every nation gave a different answer. Some 
replied in the affirmative, others in the nega- 
tive ; some said it was probable, others that 
it was an idle and ridiculous question, and 



OF CONTRADICTIONS. 267 

others that it was a subject worthy of inqui- 
ry; in short, there prevailed among them a 
total disagreement. 

After a short interval, the legislators having 
restored silence : " Nations," said they, " How 
is this to be accounted for? We proposed to 
you certain questions, and you were all of one 
opinion without distinction of race or sect: 
fair or black, disciples of Mahomet or of Mo- 
sss 3 worshippers of Bedou or Jesus, you all gave 
the same answer. We now propose another 
question, and you all differ! whence this una- 
nimity in one case and this discordance in the 
other ?" 

And the groupe of simple and untaught men 
replied : " The reason is obvious. Respect- 
ing the first questions, we see and feel the ob- 
jects; we speak of them from sensation: re- 
specting the second, they are above the reach 
of our senses, and we have no guide but con- 
jecture." 

" You have solved the problem," said the 
legislators; " and the following truth is thus 
by your own confession established : When- 
ever objects are present and can be judged of 
by your senses, you invariably agree in opin- 
ion; and you differ in sentiment only when 
they are absent, and out of your reach. 

" From this truth flows another equally clear 
and deserving of notice. Since you agree re 
specting what you with certainty know, it fol- 
lows, that when you disagree, it is because you 
do not know, do not understand, are not s-urc 
of the object in question: or in other words, 
that you dispute, quarrel and fight among 



268 SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM 

yourselves, for what is uncertain, for that of 
which you doubt. But is this wise? Is this 
the part of rational and intelligent beings? 

" And is it not evident, that it is not truth 
for which you contend ; that it is not her cause 
you are jealous of maintaining, but the cause 
of your own passions and prejudices ; that it is 
not the object as it really exists that you wish 
to verify, but the object as it appears to you; 
that it is not the evidence of the thing that 
you are anxious should prevail, but your per- 
sonal opinion, your mode of seeing and judg- 
ing ? There is a power that you want to exer- 
cise, an interest that you want to maintain, a 
prerogative that you want to assume: in short, 
the whole is a struggle of vanity. And as eve- 
ry individual, when he compares himself with 
the other, finds himself to be his equal and 
fellow, he resists by a similar feeling of right ; 
and from this right which you all deny to each 
other, and from the inherent consciousness of 
your equality, spring your disputes, your com- 
bats and your intolerance. 

" Now, the only way of restoring unanimity 
is by returning to nature, and taking the order 
of things which she has established for your 
director and guide ; and this farther truth will 
then appear from your uniformity of sentiment. 

" That real objects have in themselves an 
identical, constant, and invariable mode of ex- 
istence, and that in your organs exists a simi- 
lar mode of being affected and impressed by 
them. 

" But at the same time, inasmuch as these 
organs are liable to the direction of your will, 



OF CONTRADICTIONS 2C9 

you may receive different impressions, and find 
yourselves under different relations towards 
the same objects : so that you are with re- 
spect to them, as it were a sort of mirrour, ca- 
pable of reflecting them such as they are, and 
capable of disfiguring and misrepresenting 
them. 

"As often as you perceive the objects, su h 
as they are, your feelings are in accord wnh 
the objects, and you agree in opinion ; and it 
is this accord that constitutes truth. 

" On the contrary, as often as you diffrr in 
opinion, your dissensions prove that you do 
not see the objects such as they are, but vary 
them. 

" Whence it appears, that the cause of your 
dissentions is not in the objects themselves, 
but in your minds, in the manner in which you 
perceive and judge. 

" If therefore we would arrive at uniformity 
of opinion, we must previously establish cer- 
tainty, and verify the resemblance which our 
ideas have to their models. Now this cannot 
be obtained, except so far as the objects of 
our enquiry can be referred to the testimony 
and subjected to the examination of our senses. 
Whatever cannot be brought to this trial is 
beyond the limits of our understanding; we 
have neither rule to try it by, nor measure by 
which to instiute a comparison, nor source of 
demonstration and knowledge concerning it 

" Whence it is obvious, that, in order to live 
in peace and harmony, we must consent not to 
pronounce upon such subjects, nor to annes 

x2 



270 SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM 

to them importance; we must draw a line of 
demarcation between such as can be verified 
and such as cannot, and separate by an invi- 
olable barrier the world of fantastic beings 
from the world of realities : that is to say, all 
civil effect must be taken away from theolo- 
gical and religious opinions. 

" This, O nations, is the end that a great 
people,freed from their fetters and prejudices, 
have proposed to themselves ; this is the work 
in which by their command, and under their 
immediate auspices, we were engaged when 
your kings and your priests came to interrupt 
our labors. .... Kings and Priests, you may 
yet a while suspend the solemn publication of 
the law of nature; but it is no longer in your 
power to annihilate or subvert them." 

A loud cry was then heard from every quar- 
ter of the general assembly of nations ; and 
the whole of the people, unanimously testifying 
their adherence to the sentiments of the legis- 
lators, encouraged them to resume their sa- 
cred and sublime undertaking. " Investigate," 
said they, " the laws which nature, for our di- 
rection, has implanted in our breasts, and 
form from thence an authentic and immutable 
code. Nor let this code be calculated for one 
family, or one nation only, but for the whole 
without exception. Be the legislators of the 
human race, as ye are the interpreters of their 
common nature. Shew us the line that sepa- 
rates the world of chimeras, from that of real- 
ities ; and teach us, after so many religions of 
errour and delusion, the religion of evidence and 
truth" 



OP CONTRADICTIONS. 271 

Upon this, the legislators resuming their 
enquiry into the physical and constituent attri- 
butes of man, and the motives and affections 
which govern him in his individual and social 
capacity, unfolded in the following terms the 
law on which Nature herself has founded his 
felicity. 

END OF THE FIRST PART, 



NOTES. 



Note (a,) page 17- 

THE precious thread of Serica. That is the silk ori- 
ginally derived from the mountainous country where the 
great wall terminates; and which appears to have been the 
cradle of the Chinese empire. . . . The soft tissues of Cas- 
simere. The shawls which Ezekiel seems to have descri- 
bed under the appellation of Choud-choud. The Gold of 
Ophir. This country, which was one of the twelve Arab 
cantons, and which has so much and so unsuccessfully been 
sought for by the antiquaries, has left however some trace of 
itself in Ofor, in the province of Oman ; upon the Persian 
Gulph, neighbouring on one side to the Sabeans, who are ce- 
lebrated by Strabo for their plenty of gold, and on the other 
to Aula or Hevila, where the Pearl fishery was carried on. 
See the 27th chapter of Ezekiel, which gives a very curious 
and extensive picture of the commerce of Asia at that pe- 
riod. 

Note (b 9 ) page 18. — This Syria contained at that period 
a hundred flourishing cities. According to Josephus and 
Strabo, there were in Syria twelve millions of souls; and the 
traces that remain of culture and habitation confirm the 
calculation. 

Note (c 9 ) page 22.- — A blind fatality . An universal and 
rooted prejudice of the East, " ft was written/ 7 is there the 
answer to every thing. Hence result an unconcern and apa- 
thy, the most powerful impediments to instruction and civili- 
zation. 

Note (dy) page 34. — Too much famed peninsula of In- 
dia. Of what real good has been the commerce of India to 
the mass of the people ? On the contrary, how great the evil 
occasioned by the superstition of this country having been 
added to the general superstition ? 

Note (Cy) page 35. — Ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. In 
the Nouvelle Encyclopedic Methodiquc there is a memoir 
respecting the chronology of the twelve ages anterior to the 
passing of Xerxes into Greece, in which I conceive myself 
to have proved, that Upper Egypt formerly composed a dis- 
tinct kingdom, known to the Hebrews by the name of Rous, 
and to which the appellation of Ethiopia was specially giv~ 



NOTES. 273 

ci). This kingdom preserved its independence to the time 
of Psammeticus, at which period, being united to the Lower 
Egypt, it lost its name of Ethiopia, which thenceforth was be- 
stowed upon the nations of Nubia, and upon the different 
hordes of Blacks, including Thebes, their metropolis. 

Note (f y ) page 3. r >. — Thebes with its hundred palaces. 
The idea of a city with a hundred gates, in the common ac- 
ceptation of the word, is so absurd, that I am astonished the 
equivoque has not before been fell. 

It has ever been the custom of the East to call palaces 
and houses of the great by the name of gates, because the 
principal luxury of these buildings consists in the singular 
gate leading from the street into the court, at the farthest ex- 
tremity of which the palace is situated. It is under the ves- 
tibule of this gate that conversation is held with passengers, 
and a sort of audience and hospitality given. All this was 
doubtless known to Homer ; but poets make no commenta- 
ries, and readers love the marvellous. 

The city of Thebes, now Longser, reduced to the condi- 
tion of a miserable village, has left astonishing monuments of 
its magnificence. Particulars of this may be seen in the 
plates of Nordon, in Pocock, and in the recent travels of 
Bruce. These monuments give credibility to all that Homer 
has related of its splendour, and led us to infer of its political 
power and external commerce. 

Its geographical position was favourable to this twofold 
object. For, on one side, the valley of the Nile, singularly 
fertile, must have early occasioned a numerous population ; 
and on the other, the Red Sea, giving communication with 
Arabia and India, and the Nile with Abyssinia and the 
Mediterranean, Thebes was thus naturally allied to the richest 
countries on the globe ; an alliance that procured it an acti- 
vity so much the greater, as Lower Egypt, at first a swamp, 
was nearly if not totally uninhabited. But when at length 
this country had been drained by the canals and dykes 
which Sesostris constructed, population was introduced there, 
and wars arose which proved fatal to the power of Thebes. 
Commerce then took another route, and descended to the 
point of the Red Sea, to the canals of Sesostris (see Strabo) 
and wealth and activity were transferred to Memphis. This 
is manifestly what Diodorus means, when he tells us (Lib. L 
sect. 2.) that as soon as Memphis was established and made 
a wholesome and delicious abode, kings abandoned Thebes, 
to fix themselves there. Thus Thebes continued to decline, 
and Memphis to flourish till the time of Alexander, who, 



274 NOTES. 

building Alexandria on the border of the sea, caused Mem- 
phis to fall in its turn ; so that prosperity and power seem to 
have descended historically step by step along the Nile; 
whence it results, both physically and historically, that 
the existence of Thebes was prior to that of the other 
cities. The testimony of writers is very positive in this 
respect. " The Thebans," says Diodorus, " consider them- 
selves as the most ancient people of the earth, and assert, 
that with them originated philosophy and the science of the 
stars. Their situation, it is true, is infinitely favourable to 
astronomical observation, and they have a more accurate 
division of time into months and years than other nations,' , ' , 
&c. 

What Diodorus says of the Thebans, every author aad 
himself elsewhere, repeat of the Ethiopians, which tends 
more firmly to establish the identity of place of which I 
have spoken. u The Ethiopians conceive themselves (says 
he, Lib. III.) to be of greater antiquity than any other na- 
tion ; and it is probable, that, born under the sun's path, its 
warmth may have ripened them earlier than other men. 
They suppose themselves also to be the inventors of divine 
worship, of festivals, of solemn assemblies, of sacrifices, and 
every other religious practice. They affirm that the Egyp- 
tians are one of their colonies, and that the Delta, which was 
formerly sea, became land by the conglomeration of the 
earth of the higher country which was washed down by the 
Nile. They have, like the Egyptians, two species of letters, 
hieroglyphics, and the alphabet $ but among the Egyptians 
the first was known only to the priests, and by them trans- 
mitted from father to son, whereas both species are common 
among the Ethiopians." 

" The Ethiopians," says Lucian, page 985, " were the 
first who invented the science of the stars, and gave names to 
the planets, not at random and without meaning, but descrip- 
tive of the qualities which they conceived them to possess ; 
and it was from them that this art passed, still in an imper- 
fect state, to the Egyptians." 

It would be easy to multiply citations upon this subject; 
from all which it follows, that we have the strongest reason 
to believe that the country neighbouring to the tropic was the 
cradle of the sciences, and of consequence that the first 
learned nation was a nation of blacks ; for it is incontrover- 
tible that by the term Ethiopians, the ancients meant to re- 
present a people of black complexion, thick lips, and wooly 
hair. I am therefore inclined to believe that the inhabitants 



NOTES. 275 

of Lower Egypt were originally a foreign colony imported 
from Syria and Arabia, a medley of different tribes of sava- 
ges, originally shepherds and fishermen, who by degrees 
formed themselves into a nation, and who, by nature and de- 
scent, were enemies of the Thcbans, by whom they were no 
doubt despised and treated as barbarians. 

I have suggested the same ideas in my travels into Syria, 
founded upon the black complexion of the Sphinx. I have 
since ascertained that the antique images of Thebais have 
the same characteristic ; and Mr. Bruce has offered a multi- 
tude of analogous facts ; but this traveller, of whom I heard 
some mention at Cairo, has so interwoven these facts with 
certain systematic opinions, that we should have recourse to 
his narratives with caution. 

It is singular that Africa, situated so near us, should be 
the country on earth which is the least known. The Eng- 
lish are at this moment making attempts, the success of 
which ought to excite our emulation. 

Note (g 7 ) page 37. — Here were the ports of tlie Idume- 
ans. Ailah (Eloth) and Arsiom-Gaber (Hesion-Gaber.) 
The name of the first of these towns still subsists in its ruins, 
at the point of the gulph of the Red Sea, and in the route 
which the pilgrims take to Mecca. Hesion has at present 
no trace, any more than Quolzoum and Faran : it was, how- 
ever, the harbour for the fleets of Solomon. The vessels of 
this prince, conducted by the Tyrians, sailed along the coast 
of Arabia to Ophir in the Persian Gulph, thus opening a 
communication with the merchants of India and Ceylon. 
That this navigation was entirely of Tyrian invention, as ap- 
pears both from the pilots and ship-builders employed by the 
Jews, and the names that were given to the trading islands, viz. 
Tyrus and Aradus, now Barhain. The voyage was perform- 
ed in two different modes, either in canoes of osier and rush- 
es, covered on the outside with skins done over with pitch : 
these vessels were unable to quit the Red Sea, or so much 
as to leave the shore. The second mode of carrying on the 
trade was by means of vessels, with decks of the size of our 
long boats, which were able to pass the strait and to weather 
the dangers of the ocean ; but for this purpose it was neces- 
sary to bring the wood from Mount Lebanus and Cilicia, 
where it is very fine and in great abundance. This wood 
was first conveyed in floats from Tarsus to Phenicia, for 
which reason the vessels were called ships of Tarsus ; from 
whence it has been ridiculously inferred that they went round 
the promontory of Africa as far as Tortosa in Spain. From 



276 ISOTEte. 

Phoenicia it was transported on the backs of camels to the 
Red Sea, which practice still continues, because the shores 
of this sea are absolutely unprovided with wood even for fuel. 
These vessels spent a complete year in their voyage, that is, 
sailed one year, sojourned another, and did not return till the 
third. This tediousness was owing, first to their cruising 
from port to port, as they do at present ; secondly to their 
being detained by the Monsoon currents; and thirdly be- 
cause, according to the calculations of Pliny and Strabo, it 
was the ordinary practice among the ancients to spend three 
years in a voyage of twelve hundred leagues. Such a com- 
merce must have been very expensive, particularly as they 
were obliged to carry with them their provisions and even 
fresh water. For this reason Solomon made himself master 
of Palmyra, which was at that time inhabited, and was al- 
ready the magazine and high road of merchants by the way 
of Euphrates. This conquest brought Solomon much nearer 
to the country of gold and pearls. This alternative of a 
route either by the Red Sea or the river Euphrates was to the 
ancients, what in later times has been the alternative in a 
voyage to the Indies, either by crossing the Isthmus of Suez, 
or doubling the Cape of Good Hope. It appears that till 
the time of Moses this trade was carried on across the desert 
of Svria and Theais ; that afterwards it fell into the hands of 
the Phoenicians, who fixed its site upon the Red Sea, and 
that it was mutual jealousy that induced the kings of Nine- 
veh and Babylon to undertake the destruction of Tyre and 
Jerusalem. 1 insist the more upon these facts, because I 
have never seen any thing reasonable upon the subject. 

Note (h,) page 38. — Babylon, the relics of which are at 
present no more than a few confused heaps of earth. It ap- 
pears that Babylon occupied on the eastern bank of the Eu- 
phrates a space of ground six leagues in length. Throughout 
this space bricks are found, by means of which, daily addi- 
tions are made to the town of Hell£. Upon many of these 
are characters written with a nail similar to those of Persepo- 
lis. I am indebted for these facts to M. de Beauchamp, 
grand vicar of Babylon, a traveller equally distinguished for 
his knowledge of astronomy and veracity. 

Note (i,) page 6l. — Those wells of Tyre. See respect- 
ing these monuments my Travels into Syria, vol. ii. p. 214. 

Those embankments of the Euphrates. From the town or 
village of Samouat the course of the Euphrates is accompani- 
ed with a double bank, which descends as far as its junction 
with the Tigris and from thence to the sea, being a length of 



NOTES. 277 

about an hundred leagues French measure. The height of 
these artificial banks is not uniform, but increases as j^ou ad- 
vance from the sea ; it may be estimated at from twelve to 
fifteen feet. But for them the inundation of the river wouid 
bury the country around, which is flat, to an extent of twenty 
or twenty-five leagues, and even notwithstanding these banks, 
there has been in modern times an overflow which has cover- 
ed the whole triangle formed by the junction of this river to 
the Tigris, being a space of country of 130 square leagues. 
By the stagnation of these waters an epidemical disease of the 
most fatal nature was occasioned. It follows from hence, 1. 
That all the flat country bordering upon these rivers, was 
originally a marsh; 2. That this marsh could not have been 
inhabited previously to the construction of the banks in ques- 
tion ; 3. That these banks could not have been the work but 
of a population prior as to date: and the elevation of Baby- 
lon therefore must have been posterior to that of Nineveh, as 
I think I have chronologically demonstrated in the memoir 
above cited. See Encyclopedic, vol. xiii. of Antiquities. 

Note (k } ) page 6l. — Those subterraneous conduits of 
Medea. The modern Aderbidjan, which was a part of Me- 
dea, the mountains of Kouderstan, and those of Diarbekr, 
abound with subterranean canals, by means of which the an- 
cient inhabitants conveyed water to their parched soil, in or- 
der to fertilize it. It was regarded as a meritorious act and a 
.religious duty prescribed by Zoroaster, who, instead of preach- 
ing celibacy, mortifications, and other pretended virtues of 
the monkish sort, repeats continually in the passages that are 
preserved respecting him in the Sad-der and the Zen d-a vesta, 
" That the action most pleasing to God is to plough and cul- 
tivate the earth, to water it with running streams, to multi- 
ply vegetation and living beings, to have numerous flocks, 
young and fruitful virgins, a multitude of children, &c. &c. ?? 

Note ( I,) page 62. — This inequality, the manifest result 
of natural accident, teas taken for the actual law of nature. 
Almost ail the ancient philosophers and politicians have laid 
it down as a principle that men are born unequal, that nature 
has created some to be free, and others to be slaves. Ex- 
pressions of this kind are to be found in Aristotle, and even 
Plato, called the divine, doubtless in the same sense as the 
mythological reveries which he promulgated. With all the 
people of antiquity, the Gauls, the Romans, the Athenians, 
the right of the strongest, was the right of nations; and irom 
the same principle are derived all the political disorders and 
public national crimes that at present exist. 

Y 



278 NOTES. 

Note (m,) page 63. — Paternal tyranny laid the founda- 
tion of political despotism. Upon this single expression it 
would be easy to write a long and important chapter. We 
might prove in it, beyond contradiction, that all the abuses of 
national governments have sprung from those of domestic go- 
vernment. From that government called patriarchal, which 
superficial minds have extolled without having analysed it. 
Numberless facts demonstrate, that with every infant people, 
in every savage and barbarous state, the father, the chief of 
the family, is a despot, and a cruel and insolent despot. The 
wife is his slave, the children his servants. This king sleeps 
or smokes his pipe, while his wife and daughters perform all 
the drudgery of the house, and even that of tillage, and culti- 
vation, as far as occupations of this nature are practised in 
such societies ; and no sooner have the boys acquired strength, 
than they are allowed to beat the females and make them 
serve and wait upon them as they do upon their fathers. Si- 
milar 4o this is the state of our own uncivilized peasants. In 
proportion as civilization spreads, the manners become more 
mild, and the condition of the women improves, till, by a con- 
trary excess, the}' arrive at dominion, and then a nation be- 
comes effeminate and corrupt. It is remarkable that paren- 
tal authority is great accordingly as the government is des- 
potic. China, India, and Turkey, are striking examples of 
this. One would suppose that tyrants gave themselves ac- 
complices, and interested subaltern despots to maintain their 
authority. In opposition to this the Romans will be cited ; 
but it remains to be proved that the Romans were men truly 
free ; and their quick passage from their republican despot- 
ism to their abject servility under the emperors, gives room 
at least for considerable doubts as to that freedom. 

Note (n ? ) page 67. — By its always tending to concen- 
trate the power in a single hand. It is remarkable that this 
has in all instances been the constant progress of societies : 
beginning with a state of anarchy or democracy, that is, with 
a great division of power, they have passed to aristocracy, 
and from aristocracy to monarchy. Does it not hence follow 
that those who constitute states under the democratic form, 
destine them to undergo all the intervening troubles between 
that and monarchy : and that the supreme administration by a 
single chief is the most natural government, as well as that 
best calculated for peace ? 

Note (o, ) page 69. — And kings patronized and indulged 
in every thing that vanity and artificial taste could dictate. 
It is equally worthy remark, that the conduct and manners 



NOTES. 



279 



of princes and kings of every country and every age, arc 
found to be precisely the same at similar periods whether, of 
the formation or dissolution of empires. History every where 
presents the same pictures of luxury and folly ; of parks, gar- 
dens, lakes, rocks, palaces, furniture, excess of the table, wine, 
women, concluding with brutality. 

The absurd rock in the garden of Versailles has alone cost 
three millions. I have sometimes calculated what might have 
been done with the expense of the three pyramids of Gizah. 
and I have found that it would easily have constructed, from 
the Red Sea to Alexandria, a canal 150 feet wide, and 30 
deep, completely covered in with cut stones and a parapet, 
together with a fortified and commercial town, consisting of 
four hundred houses furnished with cisterns. What difference 
in point of utility between such a canal and these pyramids ? 

Note (p,) page 78. — By their horses of reserve ivliich 
they lead, 8fc. A Tartar horse-man has always two horses, 
of which he leads one in hand. . . . The kalpak is a bonnet 
made of the skin of a sheep or other animal. The part of 
the head covered by this bonnet is shaved, with the exception 
of a tuft, about the size of a crown piece and which is suffer- 
ed to grow to the length of seven or eight inches, precisely 
where our priests place their tonsure. It is by this tuft of 
hair, worn by the majority of Mussulmen, that the angel of 
the tomb is to take the elect and carry them to Paradise. 

Note (q 7 ) page 78. — Infidels are in possession of a C07i~ 
secrated land. It is not in the power of the sultan to cede to 
a foreign power a province inhabited by true believers. The 
people, instigated by the lawyers, would not fail to revolt. 
This is one reason which has led those who know the Turks, 
to regard as chimerical the ceding of Candia, Cyprus and 
Egypt, projected by certain European potentates. 

Note (r,) page 83. — Mysteriously pronouncing the word 
Aum. This word is in the religion of the Hindoos a sacred 
emblem of the Divinity. It is only to be pronounced in se- 
cret, without being heard by any one. It is formed of three 
letters, of which the first, «, signifies the principal of all, the 
Creator, Brama ; the second, u, the conservator, Vichenou ; 
and the last,?«, the destroyer, who puts an end to all, Chiven. 
It is pronounced like the monosyllable om, and expresses the 
unity of those three Gods. The idea is precisely that of the 
Alpha and Omega mentioned in the New Testament. 

Note (8,) page 83. — Whether he ought to begin this de- 
votional act at the elbow, fyc. This is one of the grand 
points of schism between the partisans of Omar and those of 






NOTES. 



Ali. Suppose two Mahometans to meet on a journey and to 
accost each other with brotherly affection : the hour of pray- 
er arrives ; one begins his ablution at his lingers, the other at 
his elbow, and instantly they are mortal enemies. O sublime 
importance of religious opinions ! O profound philosophy of 
the authors of them ! 

Note (t,) page 94. — Tkefeic. The military, sacerdotal 
and judicial aristocracies, seem to think the world and all it 
contains, created for their exclusive gratification. The men 
and women in it have been treated as instruments merely sub- 
servient to their will and pleasure. The labour, blood, and 
sweat of the subject, the vassal and the peasant, are consum- 
ed to support the wars of the prince 5 the pride of the nobles, 
the luxury of the priests or the cupidity of the courts; whilst 
the cultivators of the earth, on whose industry all depend, are 
treated more contumeleously than horses or dogs. The in- 
ventors of arts, the improvers of life, those who have mitigat- 
ed evil and augmented the good allotted to man, are despised 
and oppressed. The people thus debased and embruted> 
have too long wallowed in torpid and polluted servitude. But 
an illustrious Era has arrived, and man relieved from the 
brutalizing efforts of slavery and superstition will be free and 
happy. 

Note (u y ) page 95. — The horde of the Oguziaiis. Before 
the Turks took the name of their chief Othman I. they bore 
that of Oguzians ; and it was under this appellation that they 
were driven out of Tartary by Gengis, and came from the 
borders of Gihoun to settle themselves in Anatolia. 

Note (Vy) page 96. — A general anarchy will ensue, as 
happened in the empire of the Sophis. In Persia, after the 
death of Thamas-Koulikan, each province had its chief, and 
for forty years these chiefs were in a constant state of war. 
In this view the Turks do not say without reason : " Ten 
years of a tyrant are less destructive than a single night of 
anarchy." 

Note (-Wy) page 101. — There imaged betivixt people and 
people audacious robheriesy barbarous warSy and implacable 
animosities. Read the history of the wars of Rome and Car- 
thage, of Sparta and Messina, of Athens and Syracuse, of the 
Hebrews and the Phoenicians: yet these are the nations of 
which antiquity boasts as being most polished. 

Note (xy) page 107'.-— The decision of their disputes. 
What is a people ? An individual of the society at large. 
What a war ? A duel between two individual people. In 
what manner ousfht a societv to act when two of its members 



NOTES. 



281 



tight ? Interfere and reconcile, or repress them. In the days 
of the Abbe de Saint-Piere, this was treated as a dream, but 
happily for the human race it begins to be realized. 

Note (y,) page 110. — Characteristic only of a tyrant. 
Every man is unquestionably bound to exercise his faculties 
in the discovery of right, and to act according to his judg- 
ment of it. Freedom of opinion however has too often been 
the subject of persecution and punishment. Brute force, has 
in all countries, been employed in place of argument, as if 
strength was reason. A war of extermination was avowed 
against the French nation, because they exercised the sacred 
right of opinion in politics. 

From the time of Constantine till the present, the narrow 
spirit of intolerance has blasted the happiness and improve- 
ment of the human species. 

After the conversion of Clovis through all the Herovin- 
gian race, the surface of Europe was drenched with the 
blood of the Druids, the Roman Polytheists, the Arians, &c. 

The wars of Charlemagne during forty years desolated 
the same quarter of the globe, in order to extend and purify 
the Christian faith. 

Four millions of lives were sacrificed during the Crusades. 

The wars of the Guelfs and Gibelines, or Pope and anti- 
Pope, ravaged Italy, and distracted the greater part of Eu- 
rope for two centuries. Spain expelled the Moors, involved 
herself in a war of seven hundred years, gained the Inquisi- 
tion, suffered depopulation, and destroyed millions of the na- 
tives of South America for the good of thvir souls, in her en- 
deavour to convert them. 

The religious opinions of Luther and Calvin were vainly 
attempted to be suppressed by fire and sword, whilst the 
conversion of the Irish Catholics to the Protestant worship 
has been attempted by armies and penal laws, by slavery 
and death. 

Note (z,) page 111.— The Chinese governed by an inso- 
lent Despotism. The emperor of China calls himself the son 
of heaven. That is of God ; for in the opinion of the Chi- 
nese, the material of heaven, the arbiter of fatality, is the De- 
ity himself. " The emperor only shows himself once in ten 
months, lest the people, accustomed to see him, might lose 
their respect ; for he holds it as a maxim that power can on- 
ly be supported by force; that the people have no idea of 
justice, and are not to be governed but by coercion. 7 ' Nar- 
rative of two Mahometan travellers in 851 and 877 ? transla» 
ted by the Abbe Renaudot in 1718. 

Y2 



oo 



)2 NOTES. ~ 

Notwithstanding what is asserted by the missionaries, this 
situation has undergone no change. The bamboo still reigns 
in China, and the son of heaven bastinades, for the most tri- 
vial fault, the Mandarin, who in his turn bastinades the peo- 
ple. The Jesuits may tell us that this is the best governed 
country in the world, and its inhabitants the happiest of men : 
but a single letter from Amyot has convinced me that China 
is a truly Turkish government, and the account of Sonnerat 
confirm it. See Vol. II. of Voyage aux Indies, in 4to. 

The irremediable voice of their language. As long as 
ihe Chinese shall in writing make use of their present cha- 
racters, they can be expected to make no progress in civiliza- 
tion. The necessary introductory step must be the giving 
them an alphabet like oar own, or the substituting in the 
room of their language that of the Tartars : the improve- 
ments made in the latter by M. de Lingles, is calculated to 
introduce this change. See the Mantchou alphabet, the pro- 
duction of a mind truly learned in the formation of language. 

Note (a 2,) page 113. — Refuses to admit its evidence. 
The belief of the real presence in the sacrament, the Nicene 
and Athanasian creeds, are melancholy instances. 

Note (h 2,) page 118. — And govern yourselves. This 
dialogue between the people and the indolent classes, is ap- 
plicable to every society ; it contains the seeds of all the po- 
litical vices and disorders that prevails, and which may thus be 
defined : men who do nothing, and who devour the substance 
of others ; and men who arrogate to themselves particular 
rights and exclusive privileges of wealth and indolence. 
Compare the Mamlouks of Egypt, the nobility of Europe, the 
Nairs of India, the Emirs of Arabia, the patricians of Rome, 
the Christian clergy, the Imans, the Bramins, the Bonzes, 
the Lamas, &c. &c. and you will find in all the same cha- 
racteristic feature — " Men living in idleness at the expense 
of those who labour. 77 

Note (c 2,) page 126. — Equality and liberty, therefore, 
constitute the physical and unalterable basis. In the de- 
claration of rights there is an inversion of ideas in the first 
article, liberty being placed before equality, from which it in 
reality springs. This defect is not to be wondered at ; the 
science of the rights of man is a new science : it was invent- 
ed yesterday by the Americans : to-day the French are per- 
fecting it, but there yet remains a great deal to be done. In 
the ideas that constitutes it there is a genealogical order 
which, from its basis, physical equality, to the minutest and 
most remote branches of government, ought to proceed in an 
uninterrupted series of inferences. This will be dernonstra- 
cd in the second part of this work. 



notes. 283 

Note (d 2 7 ) page 133. — An enormous hat of the leaves of 
the palm-tree. This species of the palm-tree is called Lata- 
nier. Its leaf, similar to a fan-mount, grows upon a stalk 
issuing directly from the earth. A specimen may be seen 
in the botanic garden. 

Note (e 2,) page 1«33. — The display of so many varieties 
of the same species. A hall of costumas in one of the gal- 
leries of the Louvre, would in every point of view be an in- 
teresting establishment : it would furnish an admirable treat 
to the curiosity of a great number of men, excellent models 
to the artist, and useful subjects of meditation to the physi- 
cian, the philosopher and the legislator. Picture to yourself 
a collection of the various faces and figures of every coun- 
try and nation, exhibiting accurately, colour, features, and 
form : what a field for investigation and enquiry as to the 
influence of climate, manners, aliment, &c. ! It might truly 
be styled the science of man ! BufFon has attempted a chap- 
ter of this nature, but it only serves to exhibit more striking- 
ly our actual ignorance. Such a collection, it is said, is be- 
gun at Petersburg, but it is said at the same time to be as im- 
perfect as the vocabulary of the three hundred languages, 
The enterprize would be worthy of the French nation. 

Note (f 2.) page 140. — Thus there are sects of the num* 
her of seventy -two. Mussulmen enumerate in common se- 
venty-two sects ; but I read, while I resided among them, a 
work which gave an account of more than eighty, all equally 
wise and important. 

Note (g 2 y ) page 141. — Has never ceased for these 
twelve hundred years. Read the history of Islamism by its 
own writers, and you will be convinced that one of the prin- 
cipal causes of the wars which have desolated Asia and Afri- 
ca, since the days of Mahomet, has been the apostolical fa- 
naticism of its doctrine. Caesar has been supposed to have 
destroyed three millions of men. It would be interesting to 
make a similar calculation respecting every founder of a re- 
ligious system. 

Note (h 2,) page 143. — Long Beards. The same affecta- 
tion of mystery has been employed by the clergy of all sects 
and ages, the same spirit which placed the miraculous wands in 
the hands of the magi, invested Aaron with his robe and gir- 
dle, induced the priests of Baal to lacerate and scarify them- 
selves with the knife and scourge, the Corybantes to beat 
their cymbols, the naked Bacchanals to run about with their 
thyrses, the Druids to display the misletoe ;■ this same spirit 
has produced the insignia of the different orders of christian 



284 NOTES. 

nuns and friars, has decorated the pope and the cardinal with 
tin; tiara and the mitre, has put the surplice on the back, the 
tonsure or wig on the head, the band round the neck, and the 
censer or chalice in the hands of the priest. 

Note (i 2,) page 144. — The Nestorians 9 the Eutycheans, 
together with a hundred others. Consult upon this subject 
Oictionarie des Heresies par V Abbe Pluquet, in two vo- 
lumes, octavo; a work admirably calculated to inspire the 
mind with philosophy, in the sense that the Lacedemonians 
taught their children temperance by shewing to them the 
drunken Heliotes. 

Note (k 2,) pay p. I4. r >. — Disciples of Zoroaster. They 
are the ParseeS, belter known by the opprobrious name of 
Gaures or Guebres, another word for infidels. They are in 
Asia what the Jews are in Europe. The name of their 
pope or high priest is Mobed. 

Note (1%) page 146. — Their Destours } that is to say, 
their priests. See, respecting the rites of their religion, Hen- 
ry, Lord, Hyde and the Zendavesta. Their costuiha is a robe 
with a belt of four knots, and a veil over the mouth for fear 
of polluting the fire with their breath. 

Note (m Z 9 ) page 146. — The resurrect ion of both body 
and soul, or of the .soul alone. The Zoroastrians are divided 
between two opinions, one party believing that both soul and 
body will rise, the other, that it will be the soul only. The 
Christians and Mahometans have embraced the most solid of 
the two. 

Note (n 2,) page 1 47- — They wear a net over their mouths, 
8fc. According to the system of the Metempsychosis, a soul, 
to undergo purification, passes into the body of some insect or 
animal. It is of importance not to disturb this penance, as 
the work must in that case begin afresh. . . . Paria. This 
is the name of a cast or tribe reputed unclean, because they 
eat of what has enjoyed life. 

Note (o 2,) page \4J. — Brama, reduced to serve as a 
'pedestal to the Tbingam. See Sonnerat, Voyage aux Tndes, 
Vol. J. 

Note (p 2,) page 147. — Hideous forms of a wild boar> 
and of a lion, fyc. These are the incarnations of Vichenou, 
or metamorphosis of the sun. He is to come at the end of 
the world, that is at the expiration of the great period, in the 
form of a horse, like the four horses of the . pocalypse. 

Note (q % 9 ) page 148. — In their devotion, 8fc. When a 
sectary of Chiven hears the name of Vichenou, pronounced, 
he stops his ears, (lies, and purifies himself. 



.votes. 285 

Note (r 2,J page 149. — The Chinese worship him under 
the name of F6t. The original name of this god is Baits, 
which in Hebrew signifies an egg. The Arabs pronounce it. 
Baidh giving to the dhsca emphatic sound which makes it 
approach to dz. Kempfer, an accurate traveller, writes if. 

Bud80 f which must be pronounced Boudso, whence is deriv- 
ed the name of Budsoist and Bonze, applied to the pri( 
Clement of Alexandria in his stromaia, writes it Bedoic f as it 
is pronounced also by ihe Chingulais; and St Jerome, lioud- 
da and Boutta. At Thibet they call it Budd: and henec 
the name of the country called Boud-ta.n and Ti-budd : it was 
in this province that this system of religion was first inculca- 
ted in Upper Asia: La is a corruption < A' /Utah, the named 
God in the Syriac language, from which many of the Eastern 
dialects appear to he derived. The Chinese having neither 
h wot d, have supplied their place byf and t, and have thei 
fore said Font. 

Note (s 2, j page 14fj. — That the soul can exist, Sfc. 
in Kempfer the doctrine of the Sintoists, which is a mixture 
of that of Epicurus and the Stoics. 

Note (t 2, j page 149. — Talipat screen. It is a leaf of the 
Latinier species of the palm tree. Hence the bonzes of Siam 
take the appellation of Talapoin. The use of this screen is 
an exclusive privilege. 

Note (u 2, ) page 150. — Conjunction of the (start. The 
sectaries of Confucius are no less addicted to astrology than 
the bonzes. It is indeed the malady of every eastern nation. 

Note (v 2,J page 150. — The grand Lama. The Delai- 
La-Ma, or immense high priests of La, is the same person 
whom we find mentioned in our old hooks of travels, by the 
name of Priester John, from a corruption of the Persian word 
Djclian. which signifies the world, to which has been prefixed 
the French word prestre or pretre, priest. Thus the pi 
world and the God world are, in the Persian idiom, the same. 

Sole Cw 2, j page l 50. — The loathsome excrements of thei, 
pontiff. In a recent expedition, the English have found cer- 
tain idols of the Lamas filled in the inside with sacred pastiJes 
from the close stool oi the high priest* Mr Hastings, 
Colonel Pollier are living witnesses of this fact, and undoubt- 
edly worthy of credit. It will he \(.ry extraordinary to ob- 
serve that this disgusting ceremony is connected with a pro- 
found philosophical system, to wit, that of the metempsycho- 
sis, admitted by the Lamas. When the Tartars swallow 

these sacred relic-, which they are accustomed to do, they 
imitate the laws of the universe, the parts of which are in' e 



286 NOTES. 

santly absorbed and pass into the substance of each other. 
It is upon the model of the serpent who devours his tail,, and 
this serpent is Budd and the world. 

Note (x 2,) page 151. — The inhabitant of Juda, 8fc. It 
frequently happens that the swine devour the very species of 
serpents the negroes adore, which is a source of great desola- 
tion in the country. President de Brosses has given us in his 
history of the Fetiche, a curious collection of absurdities of 
this nature. . . . The Teleutean dresses, Sfc. The Teleute- 
ans ? a Tartar nation, paint God as wearing a vesture of all 
colours, particularly red and green ; and as these constitute 
the uniform of the Russian dragoons, they compare him to 
this discription of soldiers. The Egyptians also dress the God 
World in a garment of every colour. Eusebius Prcep. 
Evang.p. 115, /. 3. The Teleuteans call God Bou, which 
is only an alteration of Boudd, and God Egg and World. 

Note (y 2,) page 151. — The Kamchadale represents God 
to himself under the figure of a capricious and ill-tempered 
old man. Consult upon this subject a work entitled, De- 
scription des Peuples sounds a la Russe, and it will be found 
that the picture is not over charged. 

Note (z 2,) page ]59. — His son-in-law Ali, or his vicars 
Omer and Aboubekre. These are the two grand parties into 
which Mussulmen are divided. The Turks have embraced 
the second, the Persians the first. 

Note (a 3,) page 161. — To make war upon the infidels. 
Whatever the advocates for the philosophy and civilization 
of the Turks may assert, to make war upon infidels is consid- 
ered by them as an obligatory precept and act of religion. 
See Reland de Relig. Moham. 

Note (b 3,) page 168. — Your system rests entirely upon 
mystical constructions. When we read the fathers of the 
church and see upon what arguments they have built the 
edifice of religion, we are inexpressibly astonished with their 
credulity or their knavery : but allegory was the rage of that 
period, the Pagans employed it to explain the actions of their 
Gods, and the Christians acted in the same spirit when they 
employed it after their fashion. 

Note (c 3), page 171. — It teas not till four hundred years 
after. See the Cronology of the Twelve Ages, in which I 
conceive myself to have clearly proved that Moses lived 
about 1400 years before Jesus Christ, and Zoroaster about a 
thousand, 

Note (d 3,) page 172. — Introduced our doctrines into 
their sacred books. In the first periods of the Christian 



notes. 287 

church, not only the most learned of those who have since 
been denominated heretics, but many of the orthodox, con- 
ceived Moses to have written neither the law nor the Penta- 
teuch, but that the work was a compilation made by the 
elders of the people and the Seventy, who after the death of 
Moses, collected his scattered ordinances, and mixed with 
them things that were extraneous : similar to what happened 
as to the Koran of Mahomet. See Les Clementines Homel. 
2, sect. 51, and Homel. 3, sect. 42. 

Modern critiques, more enlightened or more attentive than 
the ancients, have found in Genesis in particlar, marks of its 
having been composed on the return from the captivity ; but 
the principal proofs have escaped them. These I mean to 
exhibit in an analysis of the book of Genesis, in which I shall 
demonstrate that the tenth chapter, among others, which 
treats of the pretended generations of the man called Noah, is 
a real geographical picture of the world, as it was known to 
the Hebrews at the epoch of the captivity, which was by 
Greeco or Hellas at the West, mount Caucasus at the North, 
Persia at the East, and Arabia and Upper Egypt at the South. 
All the pretended personages from Adam to Abraham or his 
father Terah, are mythological beings, stars, constellations, 
countries. Adam is Bootes : Noah is Osyris, Xisuthrus Ja- 
nus, Saturn; that is to say Capricorn, or the celestial Genius 
that opened the year. The Alexandrian Chronicle says ex- 
pressly, page 8.5, that Nimrod was supposed by the Persians 
to be their first king, as having invented the art of hunting, 
and that he was translated into heaven where he appears un- 
der the name of Orion. 

Note (e 3,) page 173. — Creation of the world in six gd- 
hans, or periods, or into six gahanbars, that is six periods of 
time. These periods are what Zoroaster calls the thousands 
of God or of light, meaning the six summer months. In the 
first, say the Persians, God created (arranged in order) the 
heavens ; in the second the waters ; in the third the earth ; 
in the fourth trees ; in the fifth animals ; and in the sixth 
man ; corresponding with the account in Genesis. For par- 
ticulars see Hyde, ch. 9, and Henry Lord, ch. 2, on the reli- 
gion of the ancient Persians. It is remarkable that the same 
tradition is found in the sacred books of the Etrurians, which 
relate that the fabricator of all things had comprised the du- 
ration of his work in a period of twelve thousand years, which 
period was distributed to the twelve houses of the sun. In 
the first thousand, God made heaven and earth ; in the second 
the firmament; in the third the sea and the waters; in the 



288 NOTES. 

fourth the sun, moon and stars ; in the fifth the soul of ani- 
mals, birds and reptiles; in the sixth man. See Suidas, at 
the word Tyrrhena ; which shews first the identity of their 
theological and astrological opinions ; and secondly the iden- 
tity, or rather confusion of ideas, between absolute and sys- 
tematical creation, that is the periods assigned for renewing 
the face of nature, which were at first the period of the year, 
and afterwards the periods of 60, of 600, of 25,000, of 36,000, 
and of 432,000 years. 

Note (f3 7 ) page 173. — The miction of the dead, and the 
confession .of sins. The modern Parses and the ancient 
Mithriacs, who were the same sect, observe all the Christian 
sacraments, even the laying on of hands in confirmation. — 
H The priest of Mithra," says Tertullian, (de Prcescriptione, 
ch. 40.) " promises absolution from sin on confession and 
baptism; and, if I rightly remember, Mithra marks his sol- 
diers in the forehead (with the chrism, called in the Egyptian 
Kouphi ;) he celebrates the sacrifice of bread, which is the 
resurrection, and presents the crown to his followers, menac- 
ing them at the same time with the sword, &c." 

In these mysteries they tried the courage of the initiated 
with a thousand terrors, presenting fire to his face, a sword to 
his breast, &c. they also offered him a crown which he re- 
fused, saying, God is my crown : and this crown is to be seen 
In the celestial sphere by the side of Bootes. The person- 
ages in these mysteries were distinguished by the names of 
the animal constellations. The ceremony of mass is nothing 
more than an imitation of these mysteries and those of Eleusis. 
The benediction the Lord he with you, is a literal translation 
of the formular of admission chou-k, am,p-ka. See Beausob. 
Hist. Du Manicheisme, vol. ii. 

Note (g 3, j page 174. — The Vedes, the Chastres, and the 
Pourans. These are the sacred volumes of the Hindoos ; 
they are sometimes written Vedams, Pouranams, Chastrans, 
because the Hindoos, like the Persians, are accustomed to 
give a nasal sound to the terminations of their words, which 
we represent by the affixes on and an, and the Portuguese by 
the affixes om and am. Many of these books have been trans- 
lated, thanks to the liberal spirit of Mr. Hastings, who has 
founded at Calcutta a literary society, and a printing press. 
At the same time, however, that we express our gratitude to 
this society, we must be permitted to complain of its exclu- 
sive spirit, the number of copies printed of each book being 
such as it is impossible to purchase them even in England ; 
they are wholly in the hands of the East-India proprietors. 



IsOtes. 289 

-Scarcely even is the Asiatic Miscellany known in Europe, 
and a man must be very learned in oriental antiquity before 
he so much as hears of the Jones's, the Wilkin's, and the 
Halhed's, &c. As to the sacred books of the Hindoos, all 
that are }^et in our hands are the Bhagvat Geeta, the Ezour- 
Vedfrca. the B&giavadam, and certain fragments of the Chas- 
iies printed at the end of the Bhagvat Geeta. These books 
are in Indostan what the Old and New Testament are in 
Christendom, the Koran in Turkey, the Sadder and the Zen- 
davesta among the Parses, &c. When I have taken an ex- 
tensive survey of their contents, I have sometimes asked my- 
self, what would be the loss to the human race if a new Omar 
condemned them to the flames; and unable to discover any 
mischief that would ensue, I call the imaginary chest that 
contains them, the box of Pandora. 

Note (h 3 7 )page 176. — Brama, Bichen or Vichenou, and 
Chib or Chwen. These names are differently pronounced 
according to the different dialects ; thus they say Birmalu 
Bremma, Brouma. Bichen has been turned into Vichen by 
the easy exchange of a B for a V 9 and into Vichenou by 
means of a grammatical affix. In the same manner Chib, 
which is synonimus with Satan, and signifies adversary, is 
frequently written Chib-a and Chiv-en ; he is called also 
Roucler and Routr-en, that is, the destroyer. 

Note (i 3,) page IT 6. — Under the form of a tortoise. — 
This is the constellation testudo, or the lyre, which was at 
first a tortoise on account of its slow motion round the pole ; 
then a lyre, because it is the shell of this reptile on which the 
strings of the lyre are mounted. See an excellent memoir of 
M. Dupis sur VOrigine des Constellations 7 in quarto. 

Note (k 3,) page 179- — That you have borrowed the an- 
cient paganism of the western loorld. All the ancient opin- 
ions of the Egyptian and Grecian theologians are to be found 
in India, and they appear to have been introduced, by means 
of the-commerce of Arabia and the vicinity of Persia, time 
immemorial. 

Note (I 3,) page 179 > — He breathed upon the face of the 
waters. This cosmogony of the Lamas, the Bonzes, and 
even the Bramins, as Henry Lord asserts, is literally that of 
the ancient Egyptians. " The Egyptians," says Porphyry, 
u call Kneph, intelligence, or efficient cause of the universe. 
They relate that this God vomited an egg, from which was 
produced another God named Phtha or Vulcan, (igneous 
principle or the sun,) and they add, that this egg is the worbl™ 
Euseb. Prsep. Evang. p. 115. 

z 



-syn NOTES. 

fi They represent," says the same author in another place, 
i: the God Kneph, or efficient cause, under the form of a man 
in deep blue (the colour of the sky) having in his hand a scep- 
tre, a belt round his body, and a small bonnet royal of light 
feathers on his head, to denote how very subtile and sagacious 
the idea of that being is." Upon which I «fcall observe that 
Kneph in Hebrew signifies a wing, a feather, and that this 
colour of sky-blue is to be found in the majority of the Indian 
Gods, and is, under the name of Narayan, one of their most 
distinguished epithets. 

Note (m 3, ) page 182. — That the Lamas were nothing 
more than a bastard and degenerate set of Nestorians, 8fc. 
This is asserted by our missionaries, and among others by 
Georgi in his unfinished work of the Thibetan alphabet: but 
if it can be proved that the Manicheans were but plagiarists, 
and the ignorant echo of a doctrine that existed fifteen hun- 
dred years before them, what becomes of the declarations of 
Georgi ? See upon this subject, Beausob. Hist, du Manicheisme. 

But the Lama demonstrated, Sfc. The eastern writers 
in general agree in placing the birth of Bedou 1072 years be- 
fore Jesus Christ, which makes him the contemporary of Zo- 
roaster, with whom, in my opinion, they confound him. It 
is certain that this doctrine notoriously existed at that epocha; 
it is found entire in that of Orpheus, Pythagoras, and the In- 
dian gymnosophists. But the gymnosophists are cited at the 
time of Alexander as an ancient sect already divided into 
Brachmans and Samaneans. See Bardesanes en Saint Je- 
rome, Epitre a Jovien. Pythagoras lived in the ninth cen- 
tury before Jesus Christ; See Chronology of the twelve ages; 
and Orpheus is of still greater antiquity. If, as is the case, 
the doctrine of Pythagoras and that of Orpheus are of Egyp- 
tian origin, that of Bedou goes back to the common source \ 
and in reality the Egyptian priests recite that Hermes, as he 
was dying, said: "I have hitherto lived an exile from my 
country, to which I now return. Weep not for me, I ascend 
to the celestial abode where each of you will follow in his 
turn : there God is : this life is only death." Chalcidius in 
Thinaeum. 

Such was the profession of faith of the Samaneans, the 
sectaries of Orpheus, and the Pythagoreans. Farther, Her- 
mes is no other than Bedou himself; for among the Indians, 
Chinese, Lamas, &c. the planet Mercury and the correspond- 
ing clay of the Week (Wednesday) bear the name of Bedou. 
and this accounts for his being placed in the rank of mytho- 
logical beings, and discovers the illusion of his pretended ex- 



NOTES. 291 

istence as a man, since it is evident that Mercury was not a 
human being, but the Genius or Decan, who, placed at the 
summer solstice, opened the Egyptian year ; hence his attri- 
butes taken from the constellation Syrius, and his name of 
Anubis, as well as that of Esculapius, having the figure of a 
man and the head of a dog : hence his serpent, which is the 
Hydra, emblem of the Nile (Hydor, humidity ;)and from this 
serpent he seems to have derived his name of Hermes, as 
Remes (with a schin) in the oriental languages, signifies ser- 
pent. Now Bedou and Hermes being the same names, it is 
manifest of what antiquity is the system ascribed to the for- 
mer. As to the name of Samanean it is precisely that of 
Chaman preserved in Tartary, China, and India. The in- 
terpretation given to it is, man of the woods, a hermit morti- 
fying the flesh, such being the characteristic of this sect : but 
its literal meaning is, celestial (Samacui) and explains the 
sj^stem of those who are called by it. The system is the 
same as that of the sectaries of Orpheus, of the Essenians, of 
the ancient Anchorets of Persia and the whole eastern coun- 
try. See Porphyry, de Abstin. Animal. 

These celestial and penitent men carried in India their in- 
sanity to such an extreme as to wish not to touch the earth, 
and they accordingly lived in cages suspended to the trees, 
where the people, whose admiration was not less abused, 
brought them provisions. During the night there were fre- 
quent robberies, rapes and murders, and it was at length dis- 
covered that they were committed by those men, who de- 
scending from their cages, thus indemnified themselves for 
their restraint during the day. The Bramins, their rivals, 
embraced the opportunity of exterminating them ; and from 
that time their name in India has been synonimous with hy- 
pocrite. See Hist, de la Chine, in 5 vols, quarto, at the note 
page 50 ; Hist, de Huns, 2 vols, and preface to the Ezour- 
Vedan. 

Note (n 3,) page 182. — Demonstrate his existence. 8fc. 
There are absolutely no other monuments of the existence of 
Jesus Christ as a human being, than a passage in Josephus 
(Antiq. Jud. lib. 18. c. 3.) a single phrase in Tacitus (An- 
nal lib. 15. c. 44.) and the Gospels. But the passage in Jo- 
sephus is unanimously acknowledged to be apocryphal, and 
to have been interpolated towards the close of the third cen- 
tury, (See Trad, de Josephe, par M. Gillet;) and that of 
Tacitus is so vague and so evidently taken from the deposi- 
tion of the Christians before the tribunals, that it may be 
ranked in the class of evangelical records. It remains to in- 



292 NOTES. 

quire of what authority are these records. " All the world 
knows," says Fau^tus, who, though a Manichean, was one of 
the most learned men of the third century, " All the world 
knows that the gospels were neither written by Jesus Christ, 
nor his apostles, but by certain unknown persons who rightly 
judging that they should not obtain belief respecting things 
which they had not seen, placed at the head of their recitals 
the names of contemporary apostles/ 7 See Beausob vol. i. 
and His. des Apologistes de la Relig. Chret. par Burigni, 
a sagacious writer, who has demonstrated the absolute uncer- 
tainty of those foundations of the Christian religion; so that 
the existence of Jesus is no better proved than that of Osiris 
and Hercules, or that of Fot or Bedou, with whom, says M. 
de Guignes, the Chinese continually confound him, for they 
never call Jesus by any other name than Fot. Hist, de 
Huns. 

Note (o 3 9 ) page 182. — Your gospels are taken from the 
books of the Mythriacs. That is to say, from the pious ro- 
mances formed out of the sacred legends of the mysteries of 
Mythra, Ceres, Isis,&c.from whence are equally derived the 
books of the Hindoos and the Bonzes. Our missionaries 
have long remarked a striking resemblance between those 
books and the gospels. M. Wilkins expressly mentions it in 
a note in the Bhagvat Geeta. All agree that Krisna, Fot, 
and Jesus have the same characteristic features ; but religious 
prejudice has stood in the way of drawing from this circum- 
stance the proper and natural inference. To time and reason 
must it be left to display the truth. 

Note (p 3 ,J page 183. — The interior awe? secret doctrine. 
The Budsoists have two doctrines, the one public and osten- 
sible, the other interior and secret, precisely like the Egyp- 
tian priests. It may be asked, why this distinction ? It is, 
that as the public doctrine recommends offerings, expiations, 
endowments, &c. the priests find their profit in preaching it 
to the people; whereas the other, teaching the vanity of 
worldly things, and attended with no lucre, it is thought pro- 
per to make it known only to adepts. Can the teachers and 
followers of this religion be better classed than under the 
heads of knavery and credulity ? 

Note (q 3,) page 185. — That happiness and misfortune, 
Sfc. These are the very expressions of La Loubre, in his 
description of the kingdom of Siam and the theology of the 
Bonzes. Their dogmas, compared with those of the ancient 
philosophers of Greece and Italy, give a complete represen- 
tation of the whole system of the Stoics and Epicureans, mix- 



NOTES. 293 

ed with astrological superstitions, and some traits of Pytha- 
gorism. 

Note (r 3,) page 191. — Indirect and contrary codes. — 
Many instances of their contradicting themselves might be 
adduced from the Koran, &c. as well as from the Hebrew 
Scriptures. It may however be sufficient to refer to vii. Isai- 
ah, verse 14 and 28. ii. Chronicles 16 and 17. i. Samuel 
34 and 52. 37 and 38 of Jeremiah, i. Kings c. 10. ii. Kings 
c. 3. 

In Deuteronomy Moses enjoins a man, If his brother dies, 
to marry his wife, though to do so is forbidden by him in Li- 
viticus. Moses says that God visits the iniquity of the fa- 
thers on the children to the fourth generation. Ezeldal holds 
an opposite doctrine. &c. &c. &c. 

Note (s 3 7 )page 195. — The original barbarism of the hu- 
man race. It is the unanimous testimony of history, and 
even of legends, that the first human beings were every 
where savages, and that it was to civilize them and teach 
them to make bread that the Gods manifested themselves. 

Note (t 3, ) page 195. — Since man receives no ideas, fyc. 
The rock on which all the ancients have split, and which has 
occasioned all their errors, has been their supposing the idea 
of God to be innate and coeternal with the soul; and hence 
all the reveries developed in Plato and Jamblicus. See the 
Timseus, the Phedon, and De Mysteries Jigyptioruni, sect.. 
1. c. 3. 

Note (u 3 y ) page 196.— Metaphysical or spiritual exist- 
cnces. The Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, and most of the 
other ancient mythologists, represented their deities as beings 
of both sexes — -young, old, and middle aged, as begetting one 
another. Some addicted to love, some to wine, some to war, 
and some to the chace. 

The Hebrews, (who, if we judge by the writings of Moses 
and the prophets, where nothing but temporal pains are de- 
nounced against sinners,) seem to have entertained no idea of 
a future state of rewards and punishments — represented their 
deity as actuated by human passions, subject to human frail- 
ties, fickleness and wrath. 

The Christians represent him in their pictures as a large 
old man, with a long, grey, beard ; Jesus, whom they call his 
son, as a man of middle age, and the Holy Ghost, under the 
likeness of a dove. 

Clear proofs, that man has formed his ideas of the first 
cause in his likeness — Whilst he impiously says, that i: G& 
made him after his oion image." — ~ „„„„ 



294 NOTES* 

Note (v 3,) page 199- — Phantoms of belief. The ancients 
had a trinity of evil spirits instead of good ones. Alecto, 
Tisi phone and Megara, have been deposed by the Unitarean 
faith in Satan — for though the New Testament speaks of Bel- 
zebub and legions of inferior devils, we find but one recog- 
nized in the Creeds adopted by any of the modern churches. 
But on him they seem willing to bestow the authority of the 
world. 

Note (w 3,) page 201. — Bear record to the same facts. 
It clearly results, says Plutarch, from the verses of Orpheus 
and the sacred books of the Egyptians and Phrygians, that 
the ancient theology, not only of the Greeks but of all nations, 
was nothing more than a system of physics, a picture of the 
operations of nature, wrapped up in mysteries, allegories and 
enigmatical symbols, in a manner that the ignorant multitude 
attended rather to their apparent than to their hidden mean- 
ing, and even in what they understood of the latter, supposed 
there to be something more deep than what they perceived. 
Fragment of a work of Plutarch now lost, quoted by Eusebi- 
us, Prsepar. Evang. lib. 3. ch. 1. p. 83. 

The majority of philosophers, says Porphyry, and among 
others Cseromon (who lived in Egypt in the first age of Chris- 
tianity,) imagine there never to have been any other world 
than the one we see. and acknowledged no other Gods of all 
those recognised by the Egyptians, than such as are common- 
ly called planets, signs of the Zodiac, and constellations j 
whose aspects, that is, rising and setting, are supposed to in- 
fluence the fortunes of men ; to which they add their divisions 
of the signs into decans and dispensers of time, whom they 
style lords of the ascendant, whose names, virtues in the re- 
lieving distempers, rising, setting, and presages of future 
events, are the subjects of almanacks ; (for be it observed, that 
the Egyptian priests had almanacks the exact counterpart of 
Matthew Lansberg's;) for when the priests affirmed that the 
sun was the architect of the universe, Chaeremon presently 
concludes that all their narratives respecting Isis and Osiris, 
together with their other sacred fables, referred in part to the 
planets, the phases of the moon and the revolution of the sun, 
and in part to the stars of the daily and nightly hemispheres 
and the river Nile ; in a word, in all cases to physical and 
natural existences and never to such as might be immaterial 
and incorporeal. . . . All these philosophers believe that the 
icts of our will and the motion of our bodies depend upon 
rose of the stars to which they are subjected, and they refer 
■ thing to the laws of physical necessity, which they call 



NOTES. 295 

destiny or Fatum, supposing a chain of causes and effects 
which binds, by I know not what connection, all beings 
together, from the meanest atom to the supreme power and 
primary influence of the Gods ; so that, whether in their tem- 
ples or in their idols, the only subject of worship is the power 
of destiny. Porphyr. Epist. ad Janebonem. 

Note (x 3,) page 201. — The practice of agriculture, of 
course, required the observation and knowledge of the hea- 
vens. It continues to be repeated every day, on the indirect 
authority of the book of Genesis, that astronomy was the 
invention of the children of Noah. It has been gravely said, 
that while wandering shepherds in the plains of Shinar, they 
employed their leisure in composing a planatary system ; as 
if shepherds had occasion to know more than the polar star, 
and if necessity was not the sole motive of every invention !. 
If the ancient shepherds were so studious and sagacious, how 
does it happen that the modern ones are so stupid, ignorant, 
and inattentive ? And it is a fact that the Arabs of the desert 
know not so many as six constellations, and understand not 
a word of astronomy. 

Note (y 3,) page 202. — Genii, Gods, authors of good 
and evil. It appears that by the words genius, the ancients 
denoted a quality, a generative power, for the following 
words, which are all of one famu^y, convey this meaning: 
generary, genos, genesis, genus, gens. 

The Sabeans, ancient and modern, says Mamonides, ac- 
knowledge a principal God, the maker and inhabitant of hea- 
ven ; but on account of his great distance they conceive him* 
to be inaccessible ; and in imitation of the conduct of people 
towards their kings, they employ as mediators with him, the 
planets and their angels, whom they call princes and poten- 
tates, and whom they suppose to reside in those luminous 
bodies as in palaces or tabernacles, &c. More-Nebuchin,pars 
3. c. 29- 

Note (z 3,) page 203. — And even a sex derived from the 
gender of the noun by which it was appellatively distin~ 
guished. According to the gender of the object was in the 
language of the nation masculine or feminine, the Divinity 
who bore its name was male or female. Thus the Cappado- 
cians called the moon God, and the sun Goddess ; a circum- 
stance which gives to the same beings a perpetual variety in 
ancient mythology. 

Note (a 4,) page 204. — Morality appearing in all its 
native simplicity, was a judicious practice of all that is con- 
ducive to the preservation of existence, We may add ? says 



296 xotes. 

Plutarch, that these Egyptian priests always regarded the 
preservation of health as a point of first importance, and as 
indispensably necessary to the practice of piety and the ser- 
vice of the Gods. See his account of Isis and Osiris towards 
the end. 

Note (b 4, ) page 204. — That its principles (those of as- 
tronomy) can he traced bach with certainty to a period of 
seventeen thousand years. The historical orator follows here 
the opinion of M. Dupois, who, in his learned memoir con- 
cerning the origin of the constellations, has assigned many 
plausible reasons to prove that Libra was formerly the sign 
of the vernal, and Aries of the autumnal equinox ; that is, 
that since the origin of the actual astronomical system, the 
precession of the equinoxes has carried forward by seven 
signs the primitive order of the Zodiac. Now estimating the 
precession at about seventy years and a half to a degree, that 
is, 2,115 years to each sign; and observing that Aries was 
in its fifteenth degree, 1,447 years before Christ, it follows 
that the first degree of Libra could not have coincided with 
the vernal equinox more lately than 15,194 years before 
Christ, to which if you add 1799 years since Christ, it ap- 
pears that 16,993 have elapsed since the origin of the Zodiac* 
The vernal equinox coincided with the first degree of Aries 
2,504 years before Christ, and with the first degree of Taurus 
4,6l9 years before Christ. Now it is to be observed, that 
the worship of the Bull is the principal article in the theolo- 
gical creed of the Egyptians, Persians, Japanese, &c. from 
whence it clearly follows, that some general revolution took 
place among these nations at that time. The chronology of 
five or six thousand years in Genesis is little agreeable to this 
hypothesis; but as the book of Genesis cannot claim to be 
considered as a history farther back than Abraham, we are 
at liberty to make what arrangements we please in the eter- 
nity that preceded. 

Note r (c 4,) page 204. — When human reason finds a zone 
in the vicinity of the tropic, equally free from the rains of 
the equator, and the fogs of the north. M. Bailli, in placing 
the first astronomors at Selingenskoy, near the Bailkal, paid 
no attention to this twofold circumstance : it equally argues 
against their being placed at Axoum on account of the rains, 
and the Zimb fly of which Mr. Bruce speaks. 

Note (d 4,) page 206. — Man gave to the stars, 8fc. u The 
ancients," says Maimondes, " directing all their attention to 
agriculture, gave names to the stars derived from their occu- 
pation during the year." More Neb. pa?*s 3. 



NOTES. 297 

Note (e 4,) page 207. — Tliey called by the name of rings 
and serpents the figures of the orbits described by the stars 
and planets. The ancients had verbs from the substantives 
crab, goat , tortoise, as the French have at present the verbs 
serpenter, coquetier. The history of all languages is nearly 
the same. 

Note (f A,) page 210. — If they had not looked upon them 
as talismans, endued icith the virtues of the stars. The 
ancient astrologers, says the most learned of the Jews, (Ma- 
jmonides) having sacredly assigned to each planet a colour, 
an animal, a tree, a medal, a fruit, a plant, formed from them 
all a figure or representation of the star, taking care to select 
for the purpose a proper moment, a fortunate day, such as 
the conjunction of the star, or some other favourable aspect. 
They conceived that by their magic ceremonies they could 
introduce into those figures or idols the influences of the supe- 
rior beings after which they were modelled. These are the 
idols that the Chaldean-Sabeans adored ; and in the perform- 
ance of their worship they were obliged to be dressed in the 
proper colour. The astrologers, by their practices, thus in- 
troduced idolatry, desirous of being regarded as the dispensers 
of the favours of heaven ; and as agriculture was the sole em- 
ployment of the ancients, they succeeded in persuading them 
that the rain and other blessings of the seasons were at their 
disposal. Thus the whole art of agriculture, was exercised 
by rules of astrology, and the priests made talismans or 
eharms which were to drive away locusts, flies, &c. See 
Maimonides, More, Nebuchin, pars 3. c. 29. 

The priests of Egypt, Persia, India, &c. pretended to bind 
the Gods to their idols, and to make them come from heaven 
at their pleasure. They theatened the sun and moon, if they 
were disobedient, to reveal the secret mysteries, to shake the 
skies, &c. &c. Euseb. Proecep. Evang.p. 198, and Iambli- 
ens de Mysteriis JEgypt. 

Note (g 4,) page 210.- -The Sun was said to assume 
their forms, and to act, 8fc. (the forms of the twelve animals.) 
These are the very words of lamblicus de Symbolis jEgypti- 
orum, c. 2, sect. 7« The sun was the grand Proteus, the uni- 
versal metamorphist. 

Note (h A y ) page 212.— -Yozir tonsure is the disk of the 
sun ; your stole, 8fc. The Arabs, says Herodotus, shave 
their heads in a circle and about the temples, in imitation of 
Bacchus (that is the sun) who shaves himself, in this manner. 
Jeremiah speaks also of this custom. The tuft of hair which 
the Mahometans preserve; is taken also from the sun, who 



298 NOTES. 

was painted by the Egyptians at the winter solstice, as having 
but a single hair on his head. . . . Your stole its Zodiac* 
The robes of the goddess of Syria and of Dianna of Ephesus, 
from whence are borrowed the dress of the priests, have the 
twelve animals of the Zodiac painted on them. . . Rosarias 
are found upon all the Indian idols, constructed more than 
four thousand years ago ; and their use in the East has been 
universal from time immemorial. . . . The crosier is pre- 
cisely the staff of Bootes or Osiris. All the Lamas wear the 
mitre or cap in the shape of a cone, which was an emblem 
of the sun. 

Note (i A,) page 2 13. — Having said that a planet entered 
into a sign, their conjunction was denominated a marriage, 
$c. These are the very words of Plutarch in his account of 
Isis and Osiris. The Hebrews say, in speaking of the gene- 
rations of the Patriarchs, et ingressus est in earn. From this 
continual equivoque of ancient language, proceeds every mis- 
take. 

Note (h A,) page 21 4. — Tlie combination of these figures 
has also established meanings, 8fc. The reader will doubtless 
see with pleasure some examples of ancient hieroglyphics. 

" The Egyptians (says Hor-appolo) represent eternity by 
the figures of the sun and moon. They designate the world 
by the blue serpent with' yellow scales (stars, it is the Chinese 
Dragon). If they were desirous of expressing the year, they 
drew a picture of Isis, who is also in their language called 
Sothis, or dog star, one of the first constellations by the rising 
of which the year commences ; its inscription at Sais was, It 
is I that rises in the consellation of the Dog. 

" They also represent the year by a palm tree, and the 
month by one of its branches, because it is the nature of this 
tree to produce a branch every month. They farther repre- 
sent it by the fourth part of an acre of land." (The whole 
acre divided into four denotes the bessextile period of four 
years. The abbreviation of this figure of a field in four di- 
visions, is manifestly the letter ha or het, the seventh in the 
Samaritan alphabet, and in general all the letters of the alpha- 
bet are merely astronomical hieroglyphics ; and it is for this 
reason that the mode of writing is from right to left, like the 
march of the stars.) — " They denote a prophet by the image 
of a dog, because the dog star (Anoubis) by its rising gives 
notice of the inundation. Noubi in Hebrew signifies prophets 
They represent inundation by a lion, because it takes place 
under that sign: and hence, says Plutarch, the custom of 
placing at the gates of temples figures of lions with water 



NOTES. 299 

issuing from their mouths. — They express the idea of God 
and destiny by a star. They also represent God, says Por- 
phyry, by a black stone, because his nature is dark and ob- 
scure. All white things express the celestial and luminous 
Gods : all circular ones the world, the moon, the sun, the 
destinies; all semicircular ones as bows and crescents, are 
all descriptive of the moon. Fire and the Gods of Olympus 
they represent by pyramids and obelisks : (the name of the 
sun Baal is found in this latter word) : the sun by a cone (the 
mitre of Osiris) : the earth, by a cylinder (which revolves :) 
the generative power of the air by the phalus, and that of the 
earth by a triangle, emblem of the female origin. Euseb. 
Prcecep. Evang. p. 98. 

" Clay, says Iamblicus de Symbolis, sect. 7. c. 2. denotes 
matter the generative and nutrimental power, every thing 
which receives the warmth and fermentation of life." 

" A man sitting upon the Lotos or Nenuphar, represents 
the moving spirit (the sun) which, in like manner as that 
planet lives in the water without any communication with 
clay, exists equally distinct from matter, swimming in empty 
space, resting on itself: it is round also in all its parts, like 
the leaves, the flowers and the fruit of the Lotos. (Brama 
has the eyes of the Lotos, says Chaster Neadirson, to denote 
his intelligence : his eye swims over every thing, like the 
flower of the Lotos on the waters.) A man at the helm of a 
ship, adds lamblicus, is descriptive of the sun which governs 
all. And Porphyry tells us that the sun is also represented 
by a mas in a ship resting upon an amphibious crocodile, 
(emblem of the air and water). 

"At Elephantine they worshipped the figure of a man in 
a sitting posture', painted blue, having the head of a ram, arid 
the horns of a goat which encompassed a disk ; all which re- 
presented the sun and moon's conjunction at the sign of the 
ram ; the blue colour denoting the power of the moon, at the 
period of junction^ to raise water into clouds. Euseb. Prazcep. 
Evang. p. 11 6, 

" The hawk is an emblem of the sun and of light, on ac- 
count of his rapid flight, and his soaring into the highest re- 
gions of the air where light abounds." 

A fish is the emblem of aversion, and the Hippopotamus of 
violence, because it is said to kill its father and ravish its 
mother. Hence, says Plutarch, the emblematical inscription 
of the temple of Sais, where we see painted on the vestibule, 
1. A child, 2. An old man, 3. A hawk, 4. A fish, 5. A hip- 
popotamus; which signify, 1. Entrance into life, 2. Depar- 
ture, 3. God, 4. Hatred, 5. Injustice. See Isis and Osiris. 



300 . NOTES. 

u The Egyptians, adds he, present the world by a Scara- 
beus, because this insect pushes, in a direction contrary to 
that in which it proceeds, a ball containing its eggs, just as 
the heaven of the fixed stars causes the revolution of the sun, 
the yoke of an egg, in an opposite direction to its own. 

" They represent the world also by the number Jive, being 
that of the elements, which, says Diodorus, are earth, water, 
air, fire, and ether, or spiritus. The Indians have the same 
number of elements, and according to Macrobius's mystics, 
they are the supreme God, or primum mobile, the intelligence, 
or mens, born of him, the soul of the world which proceeds 
from him, the celestial spheres and all things terrestrial. 
Hence, adds Plutarch, the analogy between the Greekpente, 
five, and pan all. 

" The ass," says he again, " is the emblem of Typhon, 
because like that animal he is of a redish colour. Now Ty- 
phon signifies whatever is of a mirey or clayey nature : (and 
in Hebrew I find the three words clay, red, and ass to be 
formed from the same root hamrJ) Iamblicus lias farther told 
us that clay was the emblem of matter $ and he elsewhere 
adds, that all evil and corruption proceeded from matter j 
which compared with the phrase of Macrobus, all is perish- 
able, liable to change in the celestial sphere, gives us the 
theory, first physical, then moral, of the system of good and 
evil of the ancients. 77 

Note (I 4,) page 214. — Hieroglyphic picturis were, by 
the introduction of alphabetical writing, brought into dis- 
use. The antiquities of Egypt and Asia, prove their un- 
doubted title to early civilization, and that the method of em- 
bodying ideas was by hieroglyphics, or drawing a represen- 
tation of the bodies themselves — of which the picture-writing 
of the Mexicans is another instance. 

The introduction of alphabetical writing like most things 
of high antiquity, has been supposed of divine origin. The 
cabalistical doctors of the Jews maintain that it was one of 
the things which God created on the evening of the Sabbath* 
Pliny says it was derived from the Gods. 

It has been ascribed to Moses, to Cadmus, and the Phoe- 
nicians, to the Chaldeans, to the Syrians, to the Indians, 
8fc. Egypt has been complimented as " The Mother of the 
Arts, 77 whilst she seems to have derived her knowledge from 
Asia. In some of the Sfranserit books, the Egyptians are 
constantly described as disciples. 

The country between the Indus and the Ganges, still pre- 
serves the Shancrit language in its original purity, and offers 



NOTES. 301 

& great number of writings to the perusal of the curious ; 
among which one of the sacred books of the Gentoos, called 
Bagavadam 7 claims an antiquity of more than 5000 years, 
Egypt seems to have borrowed alphabetical writing from 
Asia, Greece from Egypt, and Rome from Greece. 

There are seven different sorts of Indian alphabetical 
writing, all named Naagoree — the elegant Shanscrit, is stiled 
Dael-Naagoree, or the " Writing of the Immortals." It 
tloes not appear, however, that all knowledge of alphabetical 
ivriting was derived from Asia — different nations, seem to 
have attained sufficient civilization to form alphabets for 
themselves ; for several of these have no connection with 
one another. 

Note (m 4,) page 215. -—They supposed than to have pre- 
ternatural intercourse with celestial powers. Knavery would 
not fail to take advantage of credulity. Among the Indians 
(from whom the Egyptians, &c. probably transmitted to us 
many superstitions as well as arts.) The Bramins, by means 
of judicial astrology, as it is called, have made themselves 
the arbiters of good and evil hours, which gives them great 
authority : they are consulted as oracles, and by the price of 
the responses procure much wealth. 

Note (n 4 y ) page 217. — The wildest frenzy and supersti- 
tion. These are properly the words of Plutarch, who relates 
that those various worships were given by a king of Egypt 
to the different towns to disunite and enslave them, and these 
kings had been taken from the cast of priests. See Isis and 
Osiris. 

Note (o A,) page 219. — In the projection of the celestial 
sphere. The ancient priests had three kinds of spheres, 
%vbich it may be useful to make known to the reader. 

" We read in Eusebius," says Porphyry, " that Zoroaster 
was the first, who, having fixed upon a cavern pleasantly situ- 
ated in the mountains adjacent to Persia, formed the idea of 
consecrating it to Mithra (the sun) creator and father of all 
things : that is to say, having made in this cavern several ge- 
ometrical divisions, representing the seasons and the elements, 
he imitated on a small scale the order and disposition of the 
universe by Mithra. After Zoroaster, it became a custom to 
consecrate caverns for the celebration of mysteries : so that 
In like manner as temples were dedicated to the Gods, rural 
altars to heroes and terrestrial deities, &c. subterraneous 
abodes to infernal deities, so caverns and grottoes were conse- 
crated to the world, to the universe, and to the nymphs : and 

Aa 



302 NOTES. 

from hence Pythagoras and Plato borrowed the idea of calling 
the earth a cavern, a cave, de Autre Nympharmu." 

Such was the first projection of the sphere in relief; though 
the Persians gave the honour of the invention to Zoroaster, 
it is doubtless due to the Egyptians ; for we may suppose 
from this projection being the most simple that it was the 
most ancient ; the caverns of Thebes, full of similar pictures, 
tend to strengthen this opinion. 

The following was the second projection: " The prophets 
or hierophants," says Bishop Synn«sius, " who had been in- 
itiated in the mysteries, do not permit the common workmen 
to form idols or images of the Gods; but they descend them- 
selves into the sacred caves, where they have concealed cof- 
fers containing certain spheres upon which they construct 
those images secretly and without the knowledge of the peo- 
ple, who despise simple and natural things and wish for pro- 
diges and fables.'' (Syn in Calvit.) That is, the ancient 
priests had armillary spheres like ours; and this passage, 
which so well agrees, with that of Cheeremon, gives us the 
key to all their theological astrology. 

Lastly, they had flat models of the nature of plate IT. with 
this difference, that they were of a very complicated nature, 
having every fictitious division of decan and sub-decan, with 
the hieroglyphic signs of their influence. Kircher has given 
us a copy of one of them in his Egyptian CEdipus, and Gy- 
belin a figured fragment in his book of the calendar (under 
the name of the Egyptian Zodiac.) The ancient Egyptians, 
sa} r s the astrologer Julius Firmicus, (Astron. lib. ii. and lib. 
iv. c. 16.) divide each sign of the Zodiac into three sections ; 
and each section was under the direction of an imaginary be- 
ing, whom they called decan or chief of ten ; so that there 
were three decans a month, and thirty-three a year. Now 
these decans, who were also called Gods (Thoi) regulated 
the destinies of mankind — and they were placed particularly 
in certain stars. They afterwards imagined in every ten 
three other Gods, whom they called arbiters ; so that there 
were nine for every month, and these were farther divided in- 
to an infinite number of powers. (The Persians and Indians 
made their spheres on similar plans ; and if a picture thereof 
were to be drawn from the description given by Scaliger at 
the end of Manilius, we should find in it a complete explana- 
tion of their hieroglyphics, for every article forms one.) 

Note (jp 4,) page 220. — The adverse angels and genii. 
If it was for this reason the Persians always wrote the name 
of Abrimanes inverted thus : 'saireramqy 



30TES. 303 

Note (gr 4,) page 220. — Typhon, that is to say, deluge, 
Typhon, pronounced Touphon by the Greeks, is precisely 
the Touphan of the Arabs, which signifies deluge; and these 
deluges in mythology are nothing more than winter and the 
rains, or the overflowing of the Nile; as their pretended fires 
which are to destroy the world, are simply the summer sea- 
son. And it is for this reason that Aristotle (De Meteor lib* 
1 . c. xiv.) says, that the winter of the great cycle year is a 
deluge; and its summer a conflagration. " The Egyptians," 
says Porphyry, " employ every year a talisman in remem- 
brance of the world ; at the summer solstice they mark their 
houses, flocks and trees with red, supposing that on that 
day the whole world had been set on lire. It was also at the 
same period that they celebrated the pyrrid, or lire dance/"' 
(And this illustrates the origin of purification by fire and by 
water; for having denominated the tropic of Cancer the gate 
of heaven, and the genial heat of celestial fire, and that of 
Capricorn the gate of deluge or of water, it was imagined that 
the spirit or souls who passed through these gates in their 
way to and from heaven, were roasted or bathed : hence the 
baptism of Mithra, and the passage through flames, observed 
throughout the East long before Moses.) 

Note (r 4,) page 220. — In Persia at a subsequent period. 
That is when the ram became the equinoxial sign, or rather 
when the alteration of the skies shewed that it was no longer 
the bull. 

Note (s 4,") page 221. — Whence are derived all religious 
acts of a gay or gladsome nature. All the ancient festivals 
respecting the return and exaltation of the sun were of this 
description : hence the hilaria of the Roman calendar at the 
period of the passage, Pascha, of the vernal equinox. The 
dances were imitations of the march of the planets. Those 
of the Dervises still represent it to this day. 

Note (t 4,) page 221. — All religious acts of the dolesome 
kind. " Sacrifices of blood," says Porphyry, " were only 
offered to Demons and evil Genii, to avert their wrath. De- 
mons are fond of blood, humidity, stench." Apud, Euseb. 
Prosp, Ev.p. 173. 

" The Egyptians," says Plutarch, " only offer bloody vic- 
tims to Typhon. They sacrifice to him a red ox, and the 
animal immolated is held in execration, and loaded with all 
the sins of the people." The goat of Moses. See Isis and 
Osiris, 

Division of terrestrial beings into pure and impure-, sa- 
cred or abominable. Strabo says, speaking of Moses and 



q 



04 NOTES. 



the Jews, " Circumcision and the prohibition of certain kind? 
of meat sprung from superstition. 7 ' And I observe respect- 
ing the ceremony of circumcision, that its object was to take 
from the symbol of Osiris, (Phallus) the pretended obstacle, 
to fecundity ; an obstacle which bore the seal of Typhon, 
" whose nature, 77 says Plutarch, " is made up of all that hin- 
ders, opposes, causes obstruction," 

Note (u A,) page 224. — Ehjsian Fields. Aliz in the Phe- 
necian or Hebrew language signifies dancing and joyous. 

Note (v 4,) page 225. — The Milky way. See Macr&fc 
Som. Scij). c. 12. 

Note (iv 4,) page 227.- — The bodies of its inhabitants- 
cast no shade. There is on this subject a passage in Plu- 
tarch, so interesting and explanatory of the whole of this sys- 
tem, that we shall cite it entire. Having observed that the 
theory of good and evil had at all times occupied the atten- 
tion of philosophers and theologians, he adds : " Many sup- 
pose there to be two Gods of opposite inclinations, one de- 
lighting in good, the other in evil ; the first of these is called 
particularly by the name of God, the second by that of Ge- 
nius or Demon. Zoroaster has denominated them Oromaze 
and Ahrimanes, and has said that of whatever fails under the 
cognizance of our senses, light is the best representation of 
the one, and darkness and ignorance of the other. He adds, 
that Mithra is an intermediate being, and it is for this reason 
the Persians called Mithra the mediator or inter-mediator. 
Each of these Gods has distinct plants and animals conse- 
crated to him : for example, dogs, birds, and hedge-hogs be- 
long to the good Genius, and all equatic animals to the evil 
one. 

" The Persians also say, that Oromaze was born or formed, 
out of the purest light; Ahrimanes, on the contrary, out of 
the thickest darkness ; that Oromaze made six Gods as good 
as himself, and Ahrimanes opposed to them six wicked ones : 
that Oromaze afterwards multiplied himself threefold (Her- 
mes trismegistus,) and removed to a distance as remote from 
the sun as the sun is remote from the earth ; that he there 
formed stars, and among others, Syrius, which he placed in 
die heavens as a guard and centinel. Pie made also twenty- 
tour other Gods, which he inclosed in an egg ; but Ahrimanes 
created an equal number on his part, who broke the egg, and 
from that moment good and evil were mixed (in the universe.) 
But Ahrimanes is one day to be conquered, and the earth to 
be made equal and smooth, that all men may live happy. 

u Theopempus adds, from the books of the Magi, that one 



NOTES. 305 

of these Gods reigns in turn every three thousand years, dur- 
ing which the other is kept in subjection; that they after- 
wards contend with equal weapons during a similar portion 
of time, but that in the end the evil Genius will fall (never to 
rise again.) Then men will become happy, and their bodies 
cast no shade. The God who meditates all these things, re- 
clines at present in repose, waiting till he shall be pleased to 
execute them." See Isis and Osiris. 

There is an apparent allegory through the whole of this 
passage. The egg is the fixed sphere, the world ; the six 
Gods of Oromaze are the six signs of summer, those of Ah- 
rimanes the six signs of winter. The forty-eight other Gods 
are the forty-eight constellations of the ancient sphere, divid- 
ed equally between Ahrimanes and Oromaze. The office of 
Syrius, as guard and centinel, tells us that the origin of these 
ideas was Egyptian : finally, the expression that the earth is 
to become equal and smooth, and that the bodies of happy 
beings are to cast no shade, proves that the equator was con- 
sidered as their true paradise. 

Note (x A,) page 228. — The cave of Mithra. In the 
caves which priests every where constructed, they celebrated 
mysteries which consisted (says Origen against Celsus) in 
imitating the motion of the stars, the planets and the heavens. 
The initiated took the name of constellations, and assumed 
the figures of animals. One was a lion, another a raven, and 
a third a ram. Hence the use of masks in the first represen- 
tation of the drama. See Ant. Devoile, vol. ii. p. 244. " In 
the mysteries of Ceres the chief in the procession called him- 
self the creator ; the bearer of the torch was denominated 
the sun ; the person nearest to the altar, the moon ; the her- 
ald or deacon, Mercury. In Egypt there was a festival iir 
which the men and women represented the year, the age, the 
seasons, the different parts of the day, and they walked in 
procession after Bacchus. Athen. lib. v. ch. f. In the cave 
of Mithra was a ladder with seven steps, representing the se- 
ven spheres of the planets, by means of which souls ascended 
and descended. This is precisely the ladder in Jacob's vi- 
sion, which shows that at that epocha the whole system was 
formed. There was in the French king's library a superb 
volume of pictures of the Indian Gods, in which the ladder is 
represented with the souls of men mounting it." 

Note (y A,) page 229. — Exact calculation. Consult the 
ancient astronomy of M. Bailly, and you will find our asser- 
tions respecting the knowledge of the priests amply proved, 

Aa2 



306 NOTES. 

Note (z 4,) page 230. — An intimate connection. These 
are the very words of Jamblicus, de Myst. iEgypt. 

Note (a 5,) page 230. — Or rather electrical fluid. The 
more I consider what the ancients understood by ether, and 
spirit, and what the Indians called akache, the stronger do I 
find the analogy between it and electrical fluid. A luminous 
fluid, principle of warmth and motion, pervading the universe, 
forming the matter of the stars, having small round particles, 
which insinuate themselves into bodies, and fill them by di- 
lating itself, be their extent what it will, what can more 
strongly resemble electricity ? 

Note (b 5,) page 230. — Was supposed, fyc. Natural phi- 
losophers, says Macrobius, call the sun the heart of the world. 
Som. Scip. c. 20. The Egyptians, says Plutarch, call the 
East the face, the North the right side, and the south the left 
side of the world, because there the heart is placed. They 
continually compare the universe to a man ; and hence the 
celebrated microcosm of the Alchymists. We observe, by 
the by, that the Alchymists, Cabalists, Free-masons, Mag- 
netisers, Martinists, and every other such sort of visionaries, 
are but the mistaken disciples of this ancient school : we say 
mistaken, because, in spite of their pretensions, the thread of 
the occult science is broken. 

Note (c 5,) page 231 . — That the worM 7 $c. See the Py- 
thagorean Ocellus Lucanus. 

Note (d 5, ) page 231. — The Orphic egg. This compar- 
ison of the sun with the yolk of an egg refers; 1. To its round 
and yellow figure; 2 .To its central situation; 3. To the 
germ or principle of life contained in the yolk. May not 
the oval form of- the egg allude to the elipsis of the orbs ? I 
am inclined to this opinion. The word Orphic offers a far- 
ther observation. Macrobius says, Som. Scip. c. 14. and c. 
20, that the sun is the brain of the universe, and that it is from 
analogy that the skull of a human being is round, like the 
planet, the seat of intelligence. Now the word Orph (within) 
signifies in Hebrew the brain and its seat (cervix) : Orpheus, 
dien, is the same as Bedou- or Baits ; and the Bonzes are those 
very Orphics which Plutarch represents as quacks, who ate 
no meat, vended talismans, and little stones, and deceived in- 
dividuals, and even governments themselves. See a learned 
memoir of Freret sur tes Orphiqites, Acad, des Insci'ipt. vol. 
23, in quarto. 

Note (e 5,) page 232. — Supporting on his head a sphere 
of gold. See Porphyry in Eusebius, Praep. Evang. lib. 3. 
p. 115, 



NOTES, 307 

Note (f 5,) page 232. — In allusion, Sfc. The Northern 
or Etesian wind, which commences regularly at the solstice, 
with the inundation. 

Note (g 5,) page 233. — You-piter. This is the true pro- 
nunciation of the Jupiter of the Latins. . . . Existence itself. 
This is the signification of the word You. 

Note (h 5-,) page 233. — The great egg. A symbol in- 
tended to testify him as the author of the world, as well as 
the producer of animated beings. 

Note (J. 5 7 ) page 234 — The immortality of the soul, 
which at first urns eternity. In the system of the first spiritu- 
alists, the soul was not created with, or at the same as the 
body, in order to be inserted in it : its existence was suppos- 
ed to be anterior and from all eternity. Such, in a few words,, 
is the doctrine of Macrobius on this head. Som. Scip. passim. 

u There exists a luminous, igneous, subtle fluid, which 
under the name of ether and spiritus, fills the universe. It is 
the essential principle and agent of motion and life, it is the 
Deity. When an earthly body is to be animated, a small 
round particle of this fluid gravitates through the milky way 
towards the lunar sphere, where, when it arrives, it unites 
with a grosser air, and becomes fit to associate with matter i 
it then enters and entirely fills the body, animates it, suffers, 
grows, increases, and diminishes with it ; lastly, when the 
body dies, and its gross elements dissolve, this incorruptible' 
particle takes it leave of it, and returns to the grand ocean of 
ether, if not retained by its union with the lunar air : it is this 
air or gas, which, retaining the shape of the body, becomes a 
phantom or ghost, the perfect representation of the deceased. 
The Greeks called this phantom the image or idol of the soul; 
the Pythagoreans, its chariot, its frame ; and the Rabbinical 
school, its vessel, or boat. When a man had conducted him- 
self well in this world, his whole soul, that is its chariot and 
ether, ascended to the moon, where a separation took place : 
the chariot lived in the lunar Elysium, and the ether returned 
to the fixed sphere, that is, to God: for the fixed heaven, 
says Macrobius, was by many called by the name of God, 
(c, 14.) If a man had not lived virtuously, the soul remain- 
ed on earthto undergo purification, and was to wander to and 
fro, like the ghosts of Homer, to whom this doctrine must 
have been known, since he wrote after the time of Pherecydes 
and Pythagoras, who were its promulgators in Greece. He- 
rodotus upon this occasion says, that the whole romance of 
the soul and its transmigration was invented by the Egyptians, 
and propogated in Greece by men, who pretended to be its' 



SOB NOTES. 

authors. I know their names, adds he, but shall not mention 
them, (Jib. 2.) Cicero, however, has positively informed us, 
that it was Pherecydes, master of Pythagoras." Tuscul. lib. 
1. sect. 16. Now admitting that this system was at that 
period a novelty, it accounts for Solomon's treating it as a 
fable, who lived 130 years before Pherecj^des. " Who know- 
eth," said he, "the spirit of a man that it goeth upwards? I 
said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, 
that God might manifest them, and that they might see that 
they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons 
of men, befalleth beasts : even one thing befalleth them : as 
the one dieth, so dieth the other ; yea they have all one breath, 
so that man hath no pre-eminence above a beast : for all is 
vanity." Eccles. c. III. v. 18. 

And such had been the opinion of Moses, as a translator 
of Herodotus (M. Archer of the Academy of Inscriptions) 
justly observes in note 389 of the second book; where he 
says also that the immortality of the soul was not introduced 
among the Hebrews till their intercourse with the Assyrians. 
In other respects, the whole Pythagorean system, properly 
analysed, appears to be merely a system of physics badly un- 
derstood. 

Note (J 5,) page 235. — The world is a machine; conse- 
quently it must have a maker. All the arguments of the 
spiritualists are founded on this. See Macrobius, at the end 
of the second book, and Plato, with the comments of Marci- 
lius Ficinus. 

Note (h 5,) page 236. — The Demi-ourgos, the Logos? 
and the Spirit, 8fc. These are the real types of the Chris- 
tian Trinity. 

Note (I 5,) page 237. — Its very names, 8fc. In our last 
analysis we found all the names of the Deity to be derived 
from some material object in which it was supposed to reside. 
We have given a considerable number of instances j let us add 
one more relative to our word God. This is known to be the 
Deus of the Latins, and the Theos of the Greeks. Now by 
the confession of Plato (in Cratylo) of Macrobius (Saturn 
lib. 1. c. 24,) and of Plutarch (Isis and Osiris,) its root is 
thein, which signifies to wander like planien, that is to say, 
it is synonimous with planets j because, add our authors, both 
the ancient Greeks and barbarians particularly worshipped 
the planets. I know that such enquiries into etymologies 
have been much decried : but if, as is the case, words are 
the representative signs of ideas, the genealogy of the one be- 
comes that of the other, and a good etymological dictionary 



NOTES. 309 

would be the most perfect history of the human understand- 
ing. It would only be necessary in this inquiry to observe 
certain precautions, which have hitherto been neglected, and 
particularly to make an exact comparison of the value of the 
letters of the different alphabets. But, to continue our sub- 
ject, we shall add that in the Phenician language, the word 
tkab (with ahi) signifies also to wander, and appears to be 
the cLerivation of ' iliein. If we suppose Deus to be derived 
from the Greek Zeus, a proper name of You-piter, having 
zaw, I live, for its root, its sense will be precisely that of you, 
and will mean soul of the world, igneous principle. See note 
(84.) Div-us, which only signifies Genius, God of the se- 
cond order, appears to me to come from the oriental word 
div, substituted for dib, wolf and chacal, one of the emblems 
of the sun. At Thebes, says Macrobius, the sun was painted 
under the form of a wolf or chacal, for there are no wolves in 
Egypt. The reason of this emblem, doubtless, is that the 
chacal, like the cock, announces by its cries the sun's rising ; 
and this reason is confirmed by the analogy of the words 
lykos, wolf, and lyke, light of the morning, whence comes 
lux. 

Dius, which is to be understood also of the sun, must be 
derived from dib, a hawk. " The Egyptians," says Porphy- 
ry (Eiiseb. PrcBcep. Evang. p. 92,) " represent the sun 
under the emblem of a hawk, because this bird soars to the 
highest regions of the air where light abounds." And in re- 
ality we continually see at Cairo large flights of these birds 
hovering in the air, from whence they descend not but to stun 
us with their shrieks, which are like the monosyllable dib: 
and here, as is the preceding example, we find an analogy 
between the word dies, day, light, and Dius ; God, Sun. 

Note (m 5,) page 23,S. — The progress of science and dis- 
covery. One of the proofs that all these systems were in- 
vented in Egypt is, that this is the only country were we see 
a complete body of doctrine formed from the remotest anti- 
quity. 

Clemens Alexandrianus has transmitted to us (Stromal, 
lib. 6,) a curious detail of the 42 volumes which were borne 
in the procession of Isis. " The priest," says he, " or chan- 
ter, carries one of the symbolic instruments of music, and two 
of the books of Mercury; one containing hymns of the Gods 5 
the other the list of the kings. Next to him the horoscope 
(the regulator of time,) carries a palm and a dial, symbols of 
astrology; he must know by heart the four books of Mercu- 
ry whjch treat of astrology ; the first on the order of the plan- 



310 NOTES. 

ets, the second on the risings of the sun and moon, and the 
two last on the rising and aspect of the stars. Then comes 
the sacred author, with feathers on his head (like Kneph) and 
a book in his hand, together with ink, and a reed to write 
with (as is still che practice among the Arabs). He must 
be versed in hieroglyphics, must understand the description 
of the universe, the course of the sun, moon, stars, and plan- 
ets, be acquainted with the division of Egypt into 36 nomes, 
with the course of the Nile, with instruments, measures, sa- 
cred ornaments, and sacred places. Next comes the stole 
bearer, who carries the cubit of the justice, or measure of the 
Nile, and a cup for the libations ; he bears also in the pro- 
cession ten volumes on the subject of sacrifices, hymns, pray- 
ers, offerings, ceremonies, festivals. Lastly arrives- the proph- 
et, bearing in his bosom a pitcher, so as to be exposed to view; 
he is followed by persons carrying bread (as at the marriage 
of Cana). This prophet, as president of the mysteries, learns 
ten oth r sacred volumes, which treat of the laws, the Gods, 
and the discipline of the priests. Now there are in all forty- 
two volumes, thirty-six of which are studied and got by heart 
by these personages, and the remaining six are set apart to be 
consulted by the pastopkores : they treat of medicine, the 
construction of the human body (anatomy), diseases, remedies^ 
instruments, &c. 8zc." 

We leave the reader to deduce all the consequences of an 
Encyclopedia. It is ascribed to Mercury; but Jamblicus 
tells us that each book, composed by priests was dedicated to 
that Godj who, on account of his title of Genius or decern 
opening the zodiac, presided over every enterprise. He is 
the Janus of the Romans, and the Guianesa of the Indians, 
and it is remarkable that Yanus and Guianes are homony- 
mous. In short, it appears that these books are the source of 
all that has been transmitted to us by the Greeks and Latins 
in every science, even in alchymy, necromancy, &c. What 
is most to be regretted in their loss is that part which related 
to the principles of medicine and diet, in which the Egyptians 
appear to have made a considerable progress, and to have 
delivered many useful observations. 

Note (n 5,) page 239- — The reigning, 8fc. " At a cer- 
tain period," says Plutarch (de Iside), " all the Egyptians 
have their animal Gods painted. The Thebans are the only 
people who do not employ painters, because they worship a 
God whose form comes not under the senses, and cannot be 
represented." And this is the God whom Moses educated at 
Heliopolis, adopted ; but the idea was not of his. own invention. 



NOTES. 311 

Note (o 5 J page 239. — And Yahouh. Such is the true 
pronunciation of the Jehovah of the moderns, who violate, in 
this respect, every rule of criticism ; since it is evident that 
the ancients, particularly the Eastern Syrians and Phenicians, 
were acquainted neither with the Je nor the V, which are of 
Tartar origin. The subsisting usage of the Arabs, which we 
have re-established here, is confirmed by Diodorus, who calls 
the God of Moses law, (lib. l), and law and Iahouh are 
manifestly the same word : the identity continues in that of 
lou-piter ; but in order to render it more complete, we shall 
demonstrate the signification to be the same. 

In Hebrew, that is to say, in one of the dialects of the com- 
mon language of Lower Asia, Yahouh is the particle of the 
verb Mb, to exist, to be, and signifies existing ; in other words, 
the principal of life, the mover or even motion (the universal 
soul of beings). Now what is Jupiter? Let us hear the 
Greeks and Latins explain their theology. " The Egyp- 
tians," says Diodorus, after Manatho,priest of Memphis, " in 
giving names to the five elements, called spirit, or ether, 
You-piter, on account of the true meaning of that word : for 
spirit is the source of life, author of the vital principle in an- 
imals ; and for this reason they considered him as the father, 
the generator of beings." For the same reason Homer says a 
father, and king of men and Gods. (Diod. lib. 1. sect. 1.) 

" Theologians," says Macrobius, " consider Youpiter as 
the soul of the world." Hence the words of Virgil : " Muses- 
let us begin with You-piter ; the world is full of You-piter." 
(Somn. Scip. c. 17.) And in the Saturnalia, he says, " Ju- 
piter is the Sun himself." It was this also which made Vir- 
gil say, " The spirit nourishes the life (of beings,) and the 
soul diffused through the vast members (of the universe,) agi- 
tates the whole mass, and forms but one immense body." 

" Ioupiter," says the ancient verses of the Orphic sect^, 
which originated in Egypt ; verses collected by Onomacritus 
in the days of Pisistratus, " Ioupiter, represented with the 
thunder in his hand, is the beginning, origin, end, and middle 
of all things : a single and universal power, he governs every 
thing ; heaven, earth, fire, water, the elements, day, and 
night. These are what constitute his immense body ; his 
eyes are the sun and moon : he is space and eternity : in 
fine," adds Porphyry, " Jupiter is the world, the universe, 
that which constitutes the essence and life of all beings. — 
Now," continues the same author, " as philosophers differ in 
opinion respecting the nature and constituent parts of this 
God ? and as they could invent no figure that should represent 



•3 1 2 NOTES* 

all his attributes, they painted him in the form of a man. He 
is in a sitting posture, in allusion to his immutable essence $ 
the upper part of his body is uncovered, because it is in the 
upper regions of the universe (the stars) that he most conspi- 
cuously displays himself. He is covered from the waist down- 
wards, because respecting terrestrial things he is more secret 
and concealed. He holds a sceptre in his left hand, because 
on his left side is the heart, and the heart is the seat of the un- 
derstanding, which (in human beings) regulates every action." 
Etfseh. Prccper. Evang. p. 100. 

The following passage of the geographer and philosopher, 
Strabo, removes every doubt as to the identity of the ideas of 
Moses and those of the heathen theologians. 

"Moses, who was one of the Egyptian priests, taught his 
followers that it was an egregious error to represent the Deity 
under the form of animals, as the Egyptians did, or in the 
shape of a man, as was the practice of the Greeks and Afri- 
cans. That alone is the Deity, said he, which constitutes 
heaven, earth, and every living thing ; that which we call the 
world, the sum of all thin gs ^nature ; and no reasonable per- 
son will think of representing such a being by the image of 
any one of the objects around us. It is for this reason, that, 
rejecting every species of images or idols, Moses wished the 
Deity to be worshipped without emblems, and according to 
his proper nature ; and he accordingly ordered a temple wor- 
thy of him to be erected, &c. Geograph. lib. 16, p. 1104, 
edition of 1707- 

The theology of Moses has, then, differed in no respect 
From that of his followers, that is to say, from that of the Sto- 
ics and Epicureans, who consider the Deity as the soul of the 
world. This philosophy appears to have taken birth, or to 
have been disseminated when Abraham came into Egypt 
(200 years before Moses) since he quitted his system of idols 
for that of the God Yahouh ; so that we may place its pro- 
mulgation about the seventeenth or eighteenth century before 
Christ ; which corresponds with what we have said before. 

As to the history of Moses, Diodorus properly represents 
it when he says, lib. 34 and 40, " That the Jews were driv- 
en out of Egypt at a time of dearth, when the country was 
full of foreigners, and that Moses, a man of extraordinary 
prudence and courage, seized this opportunity of establishing 
his religion in the mountains of Judea." It will seem para- 
doxical to assert, that the 600,000 armed men whom he con- 
ducted thither ought to be Teduced to 6,000 : but I can con- 
firm the assertion by so many proofs drawn from the books 



'3S0TES. 3 



lihemselveSj that it will be necessary to correct an error which 
appears to have arisen from the mistake of the transcribers* 

Note (p 5,) page 239. — Ei 9 Existence. This was the 
monosyllable written on the gate of the temple of Delphos, 
Platarch has made it the subject of a dissertation. 

Note (q 5, J page 240. — The name even of Osiris preserv- 
ed in his song. These are the literal expressions of the book 
of Deuteronomy, chap. 32, " The works of Tsour are perfect." 
Now Tsour has been translated by the word creator; its 
proper signification is to give forms, and this is one of the 
definitions of Osiris in Plutarch. 

Note (r 5, )page 243. — Of the Archangel Michael. " The 
names of the angels and of the months, such as Gabrial, Mi- 
chael, Yar, Nisan, &c. came from Babylois with the Jews ;' ? 
says expressly the Talmud of Jerusalem. See Beausob. Hist. 
du Manich. Vol. II. p. 624, where he proves that the saints 
of the Almanac are an imitation of the 365 angels of the Per- 
sians^ and Jambiicus in his Egyptian Mysteries, sect. 2. c, 
3, speaks of angels, archangels, seraphim, &c. like a true 
Christian. 

Note (s 5,) page 243. — Theology of Zoroaster. " The 
whole philosophy of the gymnosophists," says Diogenes La- 
ertius on the authority of an ancient writer, " is derived from 
that of the Magi, and many assert that of the Jews to have 
the same origin.' 7 Lib. 1. c. Q-. Megasthenes, an historian 
of repute in the days of Seleucus Nicanor, and who wrote 
particularly upon India, speaking of the phylosophy of the 
ancients respecting natural things, puts the Brachmans and 
the Jews precisely on the same footing. 

Note (t 5,) page 246. — At the expiration of the six thou- 
sand pretended years- We have already seen, note 29, this 
tradition current among the Tuscans ; it was disseminated 
through most nations, and shows us what we ought to think 
of all the pretended creations and terminations of the world, 
which are merely the beginnings and endings of astronomi- 
cal periods invented by astrologers. That of the year or solar 
revolution, being the most simple and perceptible, served a > a 
model to the rest, and its comparison gave rise to the most 
whimsical ideas. Of this description is the idea of the four 
ages of the world among the Indians. Originally these four 
ages were merely the four seasons ; and as each season was 
under the supposed influence of a planet ; it bore the name 
of the metal appropriated to that planet : thus, spring was the 
age of the sun, or of gold; summer the age of the moon, or 
#f silver; autumn the age of Venus, or of brass; and winter 

sb 



i5 



14 NOTES. 



the age of Mars, or of iron. Afterwards when astronomers 
invented the great year of 25 and 36 thousand common years, 
which had for its object the bringing back all the stars to one 
point of departure and a general conjunction, the ambiguity 
of the terms introduced a familiar ambiguity of ideas ; and 
the myriads of the celestial signs and periods of duration 
which were thus measured, were easily converted into so 
many revolutions of the sun. Thus the different periods of 
creation which have been so great a source of difficulty and 
misapprehension to curious inquirers, were in reality nothing 
more than hypothetical calculations of astronomical periods. 
In the same manner the creation of the world has been attri- 
buted to different seasons of the year, just as these different 
seasons have served for the fictious period of these conjunc- 
tions; and of consequence has been adopted by different 
nations for the commencement of an ordinary year. Among 
the Egyptians this period fell upon the summer solstice, 
which was the commencement of their year ; and the depar- 
ture of the spheres according to their conjectures, fell in like 
manner upon the period when the sun enters Cancer. Among 
the Persians the year commenced at first in the spring, or 
when the sun enters Aries ; and from thence the first Chris- 
tians were led to suppose that God created the world in the 
spring : this opinion is also favoured by the book of Genesis ; 
and it is farther remarkable, that the world is not there said 
to be created by the God of Moses (YahouJi), but by the 
Elohim or gods in the plural, that is, by the angels or genii , 
for so the word constantly means in the Hebrew books. If 
we farther observe that the root of the word Elohim signifies 
strong or powerful, and that the Egyptians called their decerns 
strong and powerful leaders; attributing to them the creation 
of the world, we shall presently perceive that the book of 
Genesis affirms neither more nor less than that the world was 
created by the decerns, by those very genii whom, according 
to Sanchoniafhon, Mercury excited against Saturn, and who 
were called Elohim, It may be farther asked why the plural 
substantive Elohim is made to agree with the singular verb 
bara (the Elohim creates). The reason is, that after the 
Babylonish captivity the unity of the Supreme Being was the 
prevailing opinion of the Jews; it was therefore thought pro- 
per to introduce a pious solecism in language^ which it is evi- 
dent had no existence before Moses ; thus in the names of 
the children of Jacob many of them are compounded of a 
plural verb, to which Elohim is the nominative case under- 
stood, as Raouben (Reuben), they have looked upon me and 



NOTES. 315 

Samaonni (Simeon), they have granted me my pmyer, to 
wit; the Elohim- The reason of this etymology is to be found 
in the religious creeds of the wives of Jacob, whose gods were 
the taraphim of Laban, that is, the angels of the Persians and 
the Egyptian decans. 

Note (u 5, J page 246. — Six thousand years had already 
nearly elapsed since .the (supposed) creation of the icorld. 
According to the computation of the Seventy, the period 
elapsed consisted of about 5,600 years, and this computation 
was principally followed. It is well known how much, in 
the first ages of the church, this opinion of the end of the 
world agitated the minds of men. In the sequel, the genera! 
councils, encouraged by finding that the general conflagration 
did not come, pronounced the expectation that prevailed 
heretical, and its believers were called Millenarians ; a cir- 
cumstance curious enough, since it is evident from the histo- 
ry of the gospels that Jesus Christ was a Millenarian, and of 
consequence a heretic. 

Note (x 5,j> page 247. — Constellation of the Serpent. 
" The Persians," says Chardin, " call the constellation of the 
serpent Ophiucus? serpent of Eve: and this serpent Ophiucus 
or Ophionens, pla}'s a similar part in the theology of the Phe- 
nicians," for Pherecydes, their disciple and the master of 
Pythagoras, said u that Ophioneus serpentinus had been 
cheif of the rebels against Jupiter." See Marf. Ficin. ApoL 
Socrat. p. m. 797. col. 2. I shall add that ephah (with ain) 
signifies in Hebrew serpent. 

Nole (j/ 5,) page 247. — Seduced away the man. In a 
physical sense to seduce, seducere, means only to attract, to 
draw after its. 

Note (z 5,) page 247.— -Picture of Mithra. See this 
picture in Hyde, page 111, edition of 1760. 

Note (a 6,) page 247- — Perseus rises on the opposite side. 
Rather the head of Medusa ; that head of a woman once so 
beautiful., which Perseus cut off, and which he holds in his 
hand, is only that of the virgin, whose head sinks below the 
horizon at the very moment that Perseus rises ; and the ser- 
pents which surround it are Orphiucus and the Polar Dragon, 
who then occupy the zenith. This shews us in what manner 
the ancients composed all their figures and fables. They 
took such constellations as they found at the same time on 
the circle of the horizon, and collecting the different parts, 
they formed groupes which served them as an almanac in hie- 
roglyphic characters. Such is the secret of all their pictures, 
and the solution of all their mythological monsters. The 



^16 NOTES. 

virgin is also Andromeda, delivered by Perseus from the 
whale that pursues her (pro-sequitor.^ 

Note (b 6,) page 248. — By a chaste virgin. Such was 
the picture of the Persian sphere, cited by Ahen Ezra, in the 
Ccclu-m Poeticum of Blaeu, p. ?'l. " The picture of the first 
decan of the Virgin/ 7 says that writer, " represents a beauti- 
ful virgin with flowing hair, sitting in a chair, with two ears 
of corn in her hand, and suckling an infant, called Jesus by 
some nations, and Christ in Greek. 77 

In the library of the late king of France was a manuscript, 
in Arabic, marked 1165, in which is a picture of the twelve 
bigns: and that of the Virgin represents a young woman with 
an infant by her side: the whole scene, indeed, of the birth 
of Jesus is to be found in the adjacent part of the heavens. 
The stable is the constellation of the charioteer and the goat, 
formerly Capricorn ; a constellation called prozsepe Jovis 
Ileniochi. stable of Ion; and the word Iou is found in the 
name lou-seph (Joseph.) At no great distance is the ass of 
Typhon, (the great she bear,) and the ox or bull, the ancient 
attendants of the manger. Peter the Porter, is Janus with 
his keys and bald forehead : the twelve apostles are the ge- 
nii of the twelve months, &c. This Virgin has acted very 
different parts in the various systems of mythology ; she has 
been the Isis of the Egyptians, who said of her in one of their 
inscriptions cited by Julian, the fruit I have brought forth is 
the sun. The majority of traits drawn by Plutarch apply to 
her, in the same manner as those of Osiris apply to Bootes ; 
also the seven principal stars of the she bear, called David's 
chariot, were called the chariot of Osiris, (see Kirker ;) 
and the crown that is situated behind, formed of ivy, was call- 
ed Chen-Osirie, the tree of Osiris. The Virgin has like- 
wise been Ceres, whose mysteries were the same with those 
of Isis and Mithra \ she has been the Diana of the Ephesians 5 
the great goddess of Syria, Cyble, drawn by lions ; Minerva, 
the Mother of Bacchus 5 Astrsea, a chaste virgin taken up 
into heaven at the end of the golden age ; Thems, at whose 
feet is ' the balance that was put in her hands ; the Sybil of 
Virgil, who descends into hell, or sinks below the hemisphere 
with a branch in her hand, &c. 

Note (c 6,) page 248. — Revived and rose again in the 
firmament, Resurgere, to rise a second time, cannot signify 
to return to life, but in a metaphorical sense ; but we see con- 
tinually mistakes of this kind result from the ambiguous 
meaning of the words made use of in ancient tradition. 



NOTES. 31 T 

Note (d 6,) page 249. — Chris, or the Preserver. The 
Greeks used to express by X, or Spanish iota, the aspirated 
ha of the Orientals, who said haris. In Hebrew heres sig- 
nifies the sun, but in Arabic the meaning of the radical word 
is, to guard, to preserve, and oi' haris guardian, preserver. It 
is the proper epithet of Vichenou, which demonstrates at once 
the identity of the Indian and Christian Trinities, and their 
common origin. It is manifestly but one system, which, di- 
vided into two branches, one extending to the east, and the 
other to the west, assuming two different forms : Its principal 
trunk is the Pythagorean system of the soul of the world, or 
lou-piter. The epithet piter, or father having been applied 
to the demi oargos of Plato, gave rise to an ambiguity which 
caused an inquiry to be made respecting the son of this father. 
In the opinion of the philosophers the son was understand- 
ing, Nons and Logos, from which the Latins made their 
Verbum. And thus we clearly perceive the origin of the 
eternal father and of the Verbum his son, proceeding from 
him (Mens Ex Deo nata, says Macrobius :) the anima or 
spiritus mundi, was the Holy-Ghost ; and it is for this reason 
that Manes, Basilides, Valentinius, and other pretended here- 
tics of the first ages, who traced things to their source, said, 
that God the Father was the supreme inaccessible light (that 
of the heaven, the primum mobile or the aplanes ;) the Son 
the secondary light resident in the sun, and the Holy-Ghost 
the atmosphere of the earth, (See Beausob. vol ii, p. 586 :) 
hence, among the Syrians, the representation of the Holy 
Ghost by a dove, the bird of Venus Urania, that is, of the air. 
The Syrians (says Nigidius de Germanico,) assert that a 
dove sat for a certain number of days on the egg of a fish, and 
that from this incubation Venus was born : Sextus Empiri- 
cus also observes (Inst. Pyrrh. lib. 3. c. 23,) that the Syri- 
ans abstained from eating doves ; which intimates to us a pe- 
riod commencing in the sign Pisces in the winter solstice. — 
We may farther observe, that if Chris comes from Harisch 
by a chin, it will signify artificer, an epithet belonging to the 
sun. These variations, which must have embarrassed the 
ancients, prove it to be the real type of Jesus, as had been 
already remarked in the time of Tertullian. " Many," says 
this writer, " suppose with greater probability that the sun is 
our God, and they refer us to the religion of the Persians 5" 
Apologet. c. 16. 

Note (e 6,) page 249. — One of the solar periods. See a 
curious ode to the Sun, by Matinus Capella, translated by 
Gebelin. 



318 NOTES. 

Note (f6 9 ) page 257- — Human sacrifices. Read the 
cold declaration of Eusebius (Prcep. Evang. lib. l.p. 11.) 
who pretends that, since the coming of Christ, there have 
neither been wars, nor tyrants, nor cannibals, nor sodomites, 
nor persons committing incest, nor savages destroying their 
parents, &c. When we read of these fathers of the church 
we are astonished at their insincerity or infatuation. 

Note (g 6,) page 258. — Sect of Hermetics and Samane- 
ans. The equality of mankind in a state of nature and in 
the eyes of God, was one of the principle tenets of the Sama- 
neans, and they appear to be the only ancients that entertain- 
ed this opinion. 

Note (h 6,) page 259. — Sworn to perpetuate, 8fc. The 
oath taken by the knights of the Order of Malta, is to kill, or 
make the Mahometans prisoners, for the glory of God. 

Note (A 6,) page 260. — Perverted the consciences of men. 
As long as it shall be possible to obtain purification from 
crimes, and exemption from punishment, by means of money 
and other frivolous practices; as long askings and great 
men shall suppose that building temples and instituting foun- 
dations, will absolve them from the guilt of oppression and 
homicide ; as long as individuals shall imagine that they may 
rob and cheat, provided they observe fast during lent, go to 
confession, and receive extreme unction, it is impossible there 
should exist in society any morality or virtue ; and it is from 
-a deep conviction of truth, that a modern philosopher has 
.called the doctrine of expiations la verole des societes. 

Note (k 6, ) page 26l. — Has carried its inquisition even 
to the sacred sanctuary of the nuptial bed. The Mussul- 
men, who suppose women to have no souls, are shocked at 
the idea of confession, and say; how can an honest man 
think of listening to the recital of the actions or the secret 
thoughts of a woman ? May we not also ask, on the other 
hand, how can an honest woman consent to reveal them ? 

Note (I 6,) page 26l. — That evert/ where they had form- 
ed secret associations, corporations of individuals enemies 
to the rest of the society. That we may understand the 
general feelings of priests respecting the rest of mankind, 
whom they always call by the name of the people, let us 
hear one of the doctors of the church. " The people," says 
Bishop Synnesius, in Calvit. page 315, " are desirous of 
being deceived, we cannot act otherwise respecting them. — 
The case was similar with the ancient priests of Egypt, and 
for this reason they shut themselves up in their temples, and 
there composed their mysteries out of the reach of the eye of 



NOTES. 319 

the people." And forgetting what he had just before said, he 
adds : " for had the people been in the secret they might 
have been offended at the deception played upon them. In 
the mean time how is it possible to conduct oneself otherwise 
with the people so long as they are the people ? For my own 
part, to myself I shall always be a philosopher, but in dealing 
with the mass of mankind I shall be a priest." 

u A little jargon," says Gregory Nazienzen to St. Jerome' 
(Hieron. ad Nep.) u is all that is necessary to impose on the 
people. The less they comprehend, the more they admire, 
Our forefathers and doctors of the church have often said ? 
not what they thought, but what circumstances and necessity 
dictated to them." 

" We endeavour," says Sanchoniaton, "to excite admira-- 
tion by means of the marvellous." (Proep. Eva?ig. lib. 3.) 

Such was the conduct of all the priests of antiquity, and is 
still that of the Bramins and Lamas, who are the exact coun- 
terpart of the Egyptian priests. Such was the practice of 
the Jesuits, who marched with hasty strides in the same ca- 
reer. It is useless to point out the whole depravity of such a 
doctrine. In general every association which has mystery 
for its basis, or an oath of secrecy, is a league of robbers 
against society, a league divided in its very bosom into knaves 
and dupes, or in other words, agents and instruments. It is 
thus we ought to judge of those modern clubs, which, under 
the name of Iiluminatists, Martinists, Cagliostronists, Free- 
masons and Mesmerites, infest Europe. These societies are 
the follies and deceptions of the ancient Cabalists, Magicians, 
Orphics, &c. who, says Plutarch, led into errors of consider- 
able magnitude, not only individuals, but kings and nations^ 

Note (m 6, J page 262. — They had made themselves by 
turns astrologers, casters of planets, augurers, magicians f 
Sfc. What is a magician, in the sense in which people un- 
derstand the word? a man who by words and gestures pre- 
tends to act on supernatural beings, and compel them to de= 
scend at his call, and obey his orders. Such was the con- 
duct of the ancient priests, and such is still that of all priests 
in idolatrous nations, for which reason we have given them 
the denomination of magicians* ' 

And when a Christian priest pretends to make God de- 
scend from heaven, to fix him to a morsel of leaven, and to 
render, by means of this talisman, souls pure and in a state of 
grace, what is all this but a trick of magic ? And where is 
the difference between a Chaman of Tartary, who invokes 
the genii, or an Indian Bramin, who makes his Vichenou de- 



320 NOTES. 

scencl in a vessel of water to drive away evil spirits ? Yes,, the 
identity of the spirit of priests in every age and country is 
fully established I Every where it is the assumption of an 
exclusive privilege, the pretended faculty of moving at will 
the powers of nature ; and this assumption is so direct a vi- 
olation of the right of equality, that whenever the people shall 
regain their importance, they will for ever abolish this sacri- 
legious kind of nobility, which has been the type and parent 
stock of the other species of nobility. 

Note (n 6, ) page 262. — Who paid for them as for com- 
modities of the greatest value. A curious work would be 
the comparative history of the agnuses of the pope and the 
pastils of the grand Lama. It would be worth while to ex- 
tend this idea to religious ceremonies in general, and to con- 
front, column by column, the analogous or contrasting points 
of faith and superstitious practices in all nations. There is 
one more species of superstition which it would be equally 
salutary to cure, blind veneration for the great ; and for this 
purpose it would be alone sufficient to write a minute detail 
of the private life of kings and princes. No work could be 
so philosophical as this : and accordingly we have seen what 
a general outcry was excited among kings and the panders of 
kings, when the Anecdote of the Court of Berlin first appear- 
ed. What would be the alarm were the public put in pos- 
session of the sequel of this work ? Were the people fairly 
acquainted with all the crimes and all the absurdities of this 
species of idol, they would no longer be exposed to covet 
their specious pleasures, of which the plausible and hollow 
appearance disturbs their peace and hinders them from en- 
joying the much more solid happiness of their own condition. 



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